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WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 
ABOUT  EDUCATION 


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THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
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THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


VWHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 
ABOUT  EDUCATION 


AND   OTHER  PAPERS 
AND  ADDRESSES 


<v 

BY 

ERNEST   CARROLL  MOORE 


Nrfn  gorfc 

THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1919 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1919, 
BT  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  June,  1919. 


Norfaoofc 

J.  8.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  <k  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  MMS.,  U.S.A. 


Ed.  -  Psych. 
Library 

L-G 


Co 
MY  MOTHER 


1896979 


5 


PREFACE 

THE  war  has  been  the  proving  stage  of  two  colossal 
experiments  in  education.  The  first  began  some 
forty  years  ago  in  Germany  at  the  time  that  her 
autocratic  government  initiated  its  plans  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  world.  That  experiment  is  the 
most  remarkable  demonstration  of  the  power  of 
teaching  in  the  history  of  men.  The  second  was 
the  colossal  undertaking  in  which  the  United  States, 
profiting  by  the  errors  and  successes  of  France  and 
England,  trained  and  equipped  a  huge  citizen  army 
and  within  a  twelvemonth  of  the  induction  of  its 
soldiers  transported  them  to  France  and  with  them 
had  begun  the  battles  which  brought  about  the  de- 
struction of  the  enemy.  That  is  the  most  convinc- 
ing proof  of  the  possibilities  of  specific  intensive 
instruction  which  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

Both  experiments  magnify  purposeful  training. 
In  Germany  the  ritualistic  instruction  in  the  so- 
called  liberal  arts,  which  we  formerly  relied  upon  to 
produce  citizens  of  humanity  and  culture,  went  on 
side  by  side  with  an  intense  pounding  in  of  patriot- 
ism. It  did  little  to  check  the  momentum  which 
that  purposive  indoctrination  attained.  Purposive 
instruction  in  the  very  rudiments  of  civics,  history, 
and  geography  had  to  be  evoked  in  every  army 
camp  in  the  United  States  to  make  good  the  very 
manifest  shortcomings  of  a  schooling  that  had  con- 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

tented  itself  with  formal  discipline  and  a  more  or 
less  ritualistic  occupation  with  school  studies.  If 
the  war  has  taught  us  anything,  it  has  taught  us 
that  general  education,  whether  of  the  formal  dis- 
cipline type  or  of  the  merely  aimless-keeping-com- 
pany-with-studies  sort,  cannot  be  relied  upon.  We 
who  teach  must  sharpen  our  purposes,  for  unless 
our  students  work  purposively  they  do  not  work  at 
all. 

That,  in  its  several  phases,  is  the  theme  of  the 
papers  and  addresses  in  this  book.  They  were  not 
prepared  to  be  brought  together  in  this  way.  The 
reader  will  find  repetitions  for  which  we  must  ask 
his  indulgence.  They  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
volume  is  a  collection  of  papers  and  addresses  rather 
than  a  consecutive  treatment  of  a  unitary  theme. 

Our  thanks  are  due  to  the  Educational  Review  for 
permission  to  reproduce  the  paper  on  Contemporary 
Ideals  in  Education;  to  the  Yale  Review  for  per- 
mission to  reproduce  the  paper  Why  We  Get  On 
So  Slowly;  to  School  and  Society  for  permission 
to  reproduce  the  matter  in  Chapters  II,  III,  VI, 
VII,  VIII,  and  IX;  to  Education  for  permission 
to  reprint  the  paper  on  General  Discipline;  and  to 
a  score  of  friends  for  most  helpful  collaboration. 

The  great  war  has  already  taught  us  much  about 
education;  day  by  day  it  will  teach  us  more  for 
many  years  to  come.  It  is  far  too  early  to  finally 
assess  its  lessons.  It  is  not  too  early  to  ask  what 

they  may  be. 

ERNEST  C.  MOORE 
Los  ANGELES 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGES 

I.    CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION  .        .          1-25 
II.     THE  CHILD  IN  MODERN  SOCIETY  .         .        .        27-41 

III.  Is  THE  STRESS  WHICH  is  Now  BEING  PUT  UPON 

THE  PRACTICAL  INTERFERING  WITH  THE 
IDEALISTIC  TRAINING  OF  OUR  BOYS  AND 
GIRLS? 42-56 

IV.  WHY  WE  GET  ON  so  SLOWLY       .         .         .        57-75 
V.     THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE      .         76-94 

VI.     DOES  THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS  TRAIN  THE 

MIND  SPECIFICALLY  OR  UNIVERSALLY?  .      95-119 

VII.     MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AGAIN     120-128 

VIII.  DOES  THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS  TRAIN  THE 
MIND  SPECIFICALLY  OR  UNIVERSALLY? 
A  REPLY  TO  A  REPLY  ....  129-151 

IX.    FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  TEACHING  OF 

LITERATURE 152-165 

X.     FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  STUDY  OF  THE 

CLASSICS 166-181 

XI.     WHAT  is  HISTORY  AND  WHY  Do  WE  WANT  IT  ?     182-196 
XII.     RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR  .         .     197-211 

XIII.    OUR  UNDERTAKING  AND  WHY  WE  UNDERTAKE 

IT  Now 212-228 

ix 


x  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGES 

XIV.     WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES  Us  ABOUT  EDU- 
CATION       229-243 

XV.     EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES          .  244-270 

APPENDIX 

The  English  Education  Act  of  1918      .        .  273-317 

The  American  Education  Bill         .         .         .  319-327 

The  German  Education  Program  .         .         .  328-330 

INDEX  331-334 


WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 
ABOUT  EDUCATION 


WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 
ABOUT  EDUCATION 

CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN 
EDUCATION » 

IN  these  distressful  days  when  each  one  of  us  at 
times  feels  that  the  way  of  life  which  we  call  civilized 
may  be  lost  and  forgotten,  it  is  imperative  that  we 
take  stock  of  the  forces  which  we  can  employ  to  per- 
petuate it  among  men.  Surely  the  name  for  our  age 
is  that  which  Fichte  gave  to  his,  "The  Age  of  com- 
pleted sinfulness."  Such  horrors  as  are  now  known, 
such  suffering  as  is  now  felt,  the  race  has  never  known 
before.  Indeed  if  all  the  other  wars,  pestilences, 
famines,  cataclysms,  and  devastations  which  have 
afflicted  mankind  since  the  beginning  of  recorded 
time  were  added  together  into  one  great  horror,  it 
is  a  question  whether  their  sum  total  would  equal 
this  single  one  which  goes  on  now.  Have  they  who 
did  this  thing  no  pity,  no  bowels  of  compassion,  no 
care  for  the  one  little  life  which  is  all  we  have  that 
they  make  nothing  of  it  and  crush  it  out  so  ruth- 
lessly? Surely  colossal  madness  has  done  this, 
for  sanity  could  not  even  imagine  it.  But  no,  it  is 
all  due  to  ideals,  all  the  result  of  teaching. 

1  An  address  before  the  City  Club  of  Chicago,  May  3,  1916. 
B  1 


2  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Yet  there  is  another  side  to  the  picture.  It  has 
been  met  by  something  stronger  than  it  is.  Never 
before  since  history  began  has  the  irresistible  and 
triumphant  power  of  an  idea  so  manifested  itself  as 
now.  Thought  is  again  made  flesh  and  dwells 
among  us,  and  we  who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  be 
alive  behold  its  power.  Such  devotion  to  the  old 
fidelities,  such  eagerness  to  serve,  such  patience 
under  suffering,  such  a  sublime  surrender  of  goods, 
of  cherished  plans,  of  friends,  of  self  itself,  that  an 
idea  may  live,  that  an  ideal  may  triumph,  as  takes 
place  at  every  instant  of  time  in  Europe,  this  world 
has  never  seen  before.  We  may  indeed  say  to  each 
other  what  ./Eschines  said  to  his  fellows  who  were 
alive  in  the  day  of  Alexander,  and  we  may  say  it 
to  each  other  with  better  right  than  he  said  it: 
"We  live  not  the  life  of  mortals,  but  are  born  at 
such  a  moment  of  time  that  posterity  will  relate  our 
prodigies." 

WTien  their  Homer  shall  arise  to  tell  of  these  great 
deeds  as  half -forgotten  things,  he  will  not  sing  of 
wrath  or  power  of  armaments  or  over-confident,  long- 
labored  efficiency.  He  will  sing  of  ideals,  of  human 
hatred  of  wrong,  of  sacrifice  for  social  laws,  of  irre- 
sistible love  of  liberty.  These  are  invisible  things, 
but  they  are  stronger  than  visible  things  and  deter- 
mine them.  Ideals  are  always  that,  they  are  per- 
sonal; they  exist  nowhere  but  in  minds;  they  do 
not  float  in  the  air  or  belong  to  things.  They  belong 
always  to  folks.  They  are  the  thoughts,  the  hopes, 
the  plans,  the  resolutions  of  people.  They  are  not 
fancies  or  opinions,  but  purposes,  principles,  resolves. 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    3 

The  ideals  of  this  nation  are  the  thoughts  of  what  this 
nation  is  going  to  do,  has  got  to  do,  that  you  and  I 
and  the  rest  of  folks  in  it  have,  and  the  ideals  of 
education  in  this  country  are  the  thoughts  of  what 
education  is  for,  and  must  do,  that  you  and  I  and 
the  rest  of  folks  in  our  land  have. 

I  have  sometimes  fancied  a  visitor  coming  to  Har- 
vard University  and  asking  to  be  shown  the  real 
university.  One  of  the  guides  might  take  him  into 
The  Yard  and  point  out  the  buildings  to  him  and 
say  these  are  the  real  university ;  or  another  guide 
might  produce  for  him  a  list  of  the  endowment  funds 
and  say  this  is  the  real  university;  or  another  one 
might  show  him  a  book  which  contains  the  history 
of  the  university  :  —  Harvard  guides  are,  I  regret  to 
say,  rather  too  prone  to  do  that.  He  might  take 
him  to  Mt.  Auburn  and  show  him  certain  rather 
numerous  plain  and  simple  graves  there,  and  say 
this  is  the  real  university,  or  might  show  him  the 
roll  of  the  alumni,  or  the  assembled  student  body, 
or  the  faculty  gathered  in  faculty  meeting,  or  the 
laboratories,  and  the  library ;  and  I  have  imagined 
the  visitor  turning  away  in  each  case  and  asking : 
What  brings  all  these  together  here?  What  is  the 
purpose  that  built  these  buildings,  that  brought  this 
money,  that  constituted  this  history,  that  assembled 
these  professors  both  living  and  dead,  that  collects 
these  students?  Show  me  that,  for  that  shapes  all 
the  rest,  that  is  the  real  university.  Or,  I  have 
imagined  that  same  discerning  visitor  coming  from 
Europe  and  asking  to  be  shown  the  real  United 
States,  and  when  pointed  to  the  land  bounded  on 


4  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

the  east  by  the  Atlantic,  on  the  south  by  Mexico, 
on  the  west  by  the  Pacific  and  on  the  north  by 
Canada,  saying  that  was  all  here  before  Columbus 
came,  yet  he  did  not  find  any  United  States  here. 
That  is  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  Show 
me  the  real  United  States.  And  next  he  would, 
perhaps,  be  directed  to  go  to  Washington  and  look 
at  the  White  House  and  the  Supreme  Court  and  the 
assembled  Congress,  but  would  at  once  say  no,  that 
is  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Look 
then  at  all  these  100,000,000  people,  he  would  be 
told.  But  no,  they  are  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  I  want  to  see  what  makes  these  states  and 
what  unites  them.  And  Socrates-like  he  would  then 
go  about  from  this  man  to  that  saying  to  each  of 
them,  "Speak  that  I  may  see  thee,"  and  from  what 
he  found  that  they  desired  with  all  their  hearts, 
souls,  minds,  and  strength  he  would  decide  whether 
there  is  indeed  any  real  United  States.  Ideals  are 
our  very  life  blood ;  they  pay  our  debts ;  they  send 
us  to  our  work  in  the  morning;  they  keep  us  from 
taking  our  neighbors'  property,  from  turning  des- 
troyer and  pillaging,  burning,  and  trampling  out 
lives. 

You  are  that  discerning  visitor.  You  ask  me  to 
show  you  the  real  education  of  our  country.  You  do 
not  want  to  be  shown  the  buildings,  or  the  funds  or 
the  teachers  or  the  textbooks  or  the  students.  This 
is  to  be  no  tabulation  of  plant,  equipment,  resources, 
personnel  or  results,  no  journey  through  a  museum 
to  look  at  specimens.  It  is  the  animating  purpose 
of  this  great  enterprise  that  you  wish  me  to  consider 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    5 

and  I  most  gladly  comply,  but  with  a  reservation. 
France  is  a  real  thing ;  you  can  not  touch  it  or  see  it 
or  hear  it ;  it  is  a  mental  thing,  a  desire,  a  thought, 
a  determination  that  men  by  thousands  set  aside  life 
for  nowadays.  Suppose  you  were  to  go  among  the 
soldiers  at  Verdun  and  among  the  women  that  work 
and  pray  for  them  at  home  and  ask  the  question  of 
each  one  of  them,  What  is  France  ?  You  would  get 
strangely  different  answers.  I,  too,  am  a  private,  or 
at  most  a  drill  sergeant  in  a  vast  army.  I  can  not 
speak  with  certainty  for  the  others.  I  can  tell  you 
only  what  education  is  to  me  and  what  I  believe  it  is 
to  them. 

Education  itself  is  an  ideal.  When  our  ancestors 
were  still  "extreme  gross,"  to  use  a  phrase  from 
Francis  Bacon,  they  took  no  thought  for  it.  Indeed 
we  can  imagine  a  world  in  which  grown  folks  in 
cataclysmal  selfishness  practiced  destroying  all  their 
young  as  soon  as  they  were  born.  Our  race  has, 
you  know,  at  various  times  and  in  different  ways 
destroyed  a  good  many  of  them.  A  race  which 
followed  that  practice  would  soon  die  out.  But  why 
not?  If  we  were  in  fact  as  completely  selfish  as 
many  of  our  makers  of  opinion  give  us  credit  for 
being,  we  would  not  and  could  not  care.  But  we  do 
care.  We  want  them  to  live.  All  education  is 
rooted  in  that  unselfishness,  is  grounded  in  that 
ideal.  It  is  that  something  in  us  which  makes  us 
child-keepers,  that  makes  schools  and  teachers  and 
meetings  like  this,  and  child-labor  laws,  and  horrible 
revulsion  when  young  lives  are  wantonly  trampled 
out. 


6  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Again,  we  can  imagine  a  society  in  which  every 
parent  took  the  greatest  pains  to  teach  his  child  to 
lie,  and  to  teach  him  to  steal,  and  to  teach  him  to  kill, 
and  to  do  no  work  for  himself  but  to  force  others  to 
do  everything  for  him,  to  be  a  destroyer,  to  delight 
in  anger,  to  value  brawling,  to  indulge  every  passion 
as  his  right,  to  disobey  all  laws,  to  turn  a  deaf  ear 
to  all  pleadings,  to  look  upon  compassion  as 
cowardice,  and  not  to  fear  death  but  to  look  forward 
to  endless  eons  of  joy  in  another  world  provided 
only  that  he  took  the  precaution  to  die  fighting. 
Such  a  training  would  bring  up  children  to  rend  their 
parents  and  destroy  each  other.  The  result  would  be 
exactly  the  same  as  if  the  parents  destroyed  all  the 
children  at  birth,  only  it  would  be  longer  in  coming. 

There  would  not  be  the  slightest  difference  in  the 
long  run  between  this  method  of  bringing  up  children 
and  destroying  them  outright.  But  just  this  kind 
of  education  has  been  solicitously  inculcated  in 
various  places  and  at  various  times  in  the  world's 
history.  Why  is  it  not  given  now?  It  is,  not  all 
of  it,  but  part  of  it,  in  every  country.  Why  do  you 
object  to  it?  Because  it  threatens  us,  because  it 
destroys  lives.  The  education  which  we  seek  must 
not  be  of  that  kind.  It  must  have  just  one  object, 
to  serve  life,  and  one  justification,  that  it  serves  it. 
By  life  we  do  not  mean  mere  existence  but  a  certain 
kind  of  existence.  Our  want  of  it  is  more  real  than 
anything  else  we  know.  For  the  sake  of  it  men  suffer 
wounds,  are  torn  asunder,  are  impaled,  yet  count 
imprisonment,  loss  of  possessions  and  agonizing 
death  as  little  things  beside  the  loss  of  their  conviction 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    7 

that  the  good  of  men  must  be  served.  For  the  educa- 
tor that  alone  is  the  real  thing.  And  the  only  reason 
we  have  such  a  thing  as  education  at  all  is  because 
of  the  value  we  put  upon  human  lives.  We  talk 
much  about  our  institutions  of  learning,  about  the 
subjects  which  we  teach  in  them  and  about  our  devo- 
tion to  the  sciences.  That  is  not  what  most  of  us 
mean  at  all.  We  use  such  phrases  as  "you  must  get 
knowledge  for  the  sake  of  knowledge,"  "you  must 
pursue  science  for  the  sake  of  science,"  but  they  are 
for  most  of  us  only  a  circumlocution.  What  we  are 
really  concerned  for  is  the  good  of  folks.  In  the 
service  of  education  it  is,  alas,  much  easier  to  assign 
reasons  which  will  satisfy  our  fellows  and  quiet 
objections  than  reasons  which  will  do  the  business 
and  produce  the  fruit  of  helping  men  to  new  and 
better  experiences.  What  we  are  concerned  with  is 
knowledge  as  a  means,  not  an  end.  Some  time  ago 
Professor  Dewey  told  me  that  when  he  began  to 
write  his  last  book  on  the  philosophy  of  education 
he  made  what  was  to  him  the  startling  discovery 
that  all  philosophy  is  philosophy  of  education. 
For,  what  other  reason  can  there  be  for  striving 
to  have  folks  learn  philosophy  than  that  they  may 
learn  to  think  about  life  sanely?  Is  not  the  same 
thing  true  of  all  literature,  all  art,  all  science,  all 
industry,  all  government,  all  religion,  all  morals? 
Have  we  any  reason  for  caring  for  them  save  that  our 
efforts  in  them  conserve  and  augment  human  forces 
and  make  life  a  better  thing?  Has  industry  any 
other  warrant  than  the  production  of  goods  for 
human  use?  Has  science  any  other  motive  than 


8  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

that  indicated  by  its  motto,  "I  serve"?  Has 
religion  any  other  purpose  than  to  inculcate  helpful 
lessons  about  God  and  the  life  of  our  own  souls? 
Has  government  any  other  reason  for  existing  than 
to  devise  and  secure  the  welfare  of  folks?  All 
these  exist  to  teach  men  to  be  free.  I  am  therefore 
going  to  be  more  demanding  than  Professor  Dewey 
was.  I  am  going  to  say  that  all  literature,  all  art, 
all  science,  all  government,  all  religion  is  for  edu- 
cation, that  they  have  no  other  reason  for  existence 
than  to  teach  folks  to  live  well.  We  who  teach 
are  fabricating  the  future.  We  must  build  it  out 
of  all  the  discoveries  concerning  the  life  of  man  that 
man  has  made. 

But  I  must  not,  without  stating  the  other  one, 
allow  you  to  commit  yourselves  to  the  view  that  all 
knowledge  is  nothing  but  a  series  of  discoveries  which 
men  have  made  as  to  the  best  ways  to  think  and  act 
in  order  to  live  well  here  upon  this  planet ;  that  it 
has  all  grown  out  of  the  race's  experimenting  with 
life,  that  every  single  one  of  its  formulations  is  only 
a  body  of  recipes  or  guide-board  directions  advising 
us  what  to  do  or  which  road  to  take  when  certain 
conditions  are  met,  and  that  every  book  is  a  guide- 
book to  a  country  that  the  mind  of  the  reader  is 
likely  to  visit.  This  is  the  pragmatic  view  of  the 
nature  and  function  of  knowledge,  the  only  view 
which,  as  I  believe,  makes  education  either  worth 
while  or  possible.  For  if  all  philosophy  is  philosophy 
of  education,  all  education  is  an  outcome  or  effect 
of  philosophy  and  this  philosophy  of  consequences 
is  the  only  one  which  provides  the  parent  and  the 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    9 

teacher  with  a  working  definition  of  knowledge, 
which  will  tell  him  how  to  distinguish  unerringly 
what  lessons  the  child  must  learn  from  the  infinite 
mass  of  pseudo-lessons  which  he  might  spend  his 
time  upon  and  be  none  the  better  or  wiser  for  having 
done  so.  Let  me  give  you  some  illustrations  of 
just  this  need  for  distinguishing  knowledge  from 
facts,  for  selecting  the  matter  which  children  should 
be  taught  from  that  which  they  should  not  be 
taught.  This  selection  must  be  made  in  every  sub- 
ject and  the  principle  or  ideal  of  utility  is  the  only 
principle  which  helps  us  to  make  it. 

All  children  who  go  to  school  in  our  country  must 
be  taught  to  spell.  But  there  are  400,000  words, 
more  or  less,  in  our  language.  Shall  they  be  taught 
to  spell  all  of  them  or  only  a  part  of  them  and  if 
only  a  part,  which  part?  What  does  a  knowledge 
of  spelling  mean  ?  What  does  the  teaching  of  spelling 
require  the  teacher  to  do  ?  There  are  two  views : 
According  to  one,  spelling  is  spelling,  and  to  be  a  good 
speller  means  to  be  able  to  spell  every  word,  or  since 
that  is  absurd,  almost  every  word  and  at  least 
most  of  the  hard  words  in  the  language.  Those  who 
take  this  position  say  that  spelling  is  for  the  sake  of 
spelling,  the  more  of  it  one  learns  the  better.  The 
other  view  is  that  spelling  is  a  very  practical  matter, 
we  must  all  take  pains  to  spell  the  words  that  we 
write.  Each  one  of  us  has  at  least  four  vocabularies 
and  of  these  our  writing  vocabulary  is  by  far  the 
smallest.  The  words  which  folks  are  likely  to  use  in 
letters  after  they  leave  school,  we  should  take  partic- 
ular pains  to  teach  each  child  to  spell  while  he  is  in 


10  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

school.  That  number  of  words  careful  tests  have 
shown  to  be  no  more  than  about  2000,  while  the  num- 
ber of  words  which  everybody  uses  is  hardly  more 
than  500.  Now  if  we  should  follow  the  Cleveland  plan 
of  putting  but  two  new  words  into  each  spelling  lesson 
together  with  eight  old  ones,  since  there  are  more  than 
150  days  in  each  school  year,  we  could  perhaps  in 
four  years  teach  children  to  spell  all  the  words  which 
they  are  likely  to  have  occasion  to  write,  and  to  spell 
them  correctly.  As  soon  as  we  take  the  position  that 
spelling  is  not  for  spelling,  but  for  use,  we  can  teach  it 
successfully.  As  long  as  we  cling  to  the  view  that 
spelling  is  for  spelling  we  are  so  confused  and  un- 
certain that  we  get  nowhere  and  no  one  is  pleased 
with  our  attempts,  ourselves  and  the  children  least 
of  all.  That  we  are  not  pleased  may  make  but  little 
difference,  but  that  the  children  should  because  of 
our  misguided  efforts  learn  to  hate  learning  is  a 
tragedy  more  terrible  and  devastating  even  than  the 
world  war. 

An  examination  in  geography  was  given  in  Boston 
a  little  while  ago  to  594  eighth  grade  students,  165 
third  year  high  school  students  and  86  normal  school 
students.  The  list  which  was  submitted  to  them  was 
carefully  prepared  and  included  such  questions  on 
the  geography  of  the  United  States  as  :  Locate  New 
York  City  on  the  map.  Locate  San  Francisco  on 
the  map.  Why  do  the  states  just  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  receive  less  rain  than  Massachusetts? 
Explain  the  way  in  which  the  flood  plains  of  the 
Mississippi  river  have  been  formed.  Why  are  these 
flood  plains  good  for  agriculture  ?  And  on  the  geog- 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    11 

raphy  of  Europe  such  questions  as :  Locate  on  the 
map  two  seaports  of  European  Russia.  Why  does 
England  import  large  quantities  of  wheat?  Why 
has  Germany  become  very  important  as  a  manu- 
facturing country?  Out  of  the  845  pupils  tested 
on  the  geography  of  Europe  not  a  single  pupil  passed. 
In  the  test  on  the  United  States  8.7  per  cent  of  the 
elementary  school  pupils,  4.8  per  cent  of  the  high 
school  students  and  1.1  per  cent  or  one  of  the  normal 
school  pupils  passed.  Your  conclusion  is,  doubtless, 
that  they  were  either  pretty  poor  students  or  that 
their  teaching  had  been  poor.  That  is  not  my  con- 
clusion. A  few  days  after  this  test  had  been  given  I 
was  present  at  a  meeting  where  these  results  were 
discussed.  Everyone  had  practically  reached  the 
conclusion  which  you  just  now  reached,  when  one 
of  the  men  present  asked,  "How  many  facts  would 
you  say  are  brought  to  the  attention  of  a  public  school 
child  in  his  study  of  geography  each  year?  As 
many  as  10,000?"  "Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "fully  as 
many  as  10,000."  When  we  study  geography  for 
facts  you  see  we  do  not  learn  geography. 

The  view  that  we  study  spelling  for  the  sake  of 
spelling,  geography  for  the  sake  of  geography,  science 
for  the  sake  of  science,  and  knowledge  of  all  kinds 
for  the  sake  of  knowledge,  is  due  to  the  anti-prag- 
matic philosophy  known  as  intellectualism.  It  says 
that  the  highest  function  of  our  minds  is  to  know  in 
order  to  know  —  that  a  subordinate  function  of  them 
is  to  know  in  order  to  do.  That  knowledge  in  its  truest 
form  is  knowledge  wholly  unmixed  with  volition,  or 
knowledge  that  as  somebody  has  said,  thank  God,  no- 


12  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

body  can  possibly  do  anything  with.  "God  hath 
framed  the  mind  of  man  as  a  glass  capable  of  the  im- 
age of  the  universal  world.  .  .  .  For  knowledge  is  a 
double  of  that  which  is,"  said  Bacon.  According  to 
the  pragmatists  God  has  done  nothing  of  the  sort,  and 
we  would  be  enormously  handicapped  and  wholly  help- 
less if  he  had.  The  fact  that  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  attend  with  the  same  intensity  to  everything 
which  goes  on,  indicates  that  the  mind  is  not  a 
mirror  to  reflect  images  of  everything  which  is,  but 
a  selecting  device  which  works  by  picking  out  that 
which  is  worth  while  from  that  which  is  not  worth 
while.  This  philosophy,  then,  commands  educators 
to  abandon  their  attempts  to  treat  all  that  is  known 
as  equally  valuable,  and  to  impart  universal  knowl- 
edge to  the  young.  It  says  that  knowledge  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge,  science  for  the  sake  of  science, 
or  art  for  art's  sake,  are  monstrous  shibboleths,  that 
only  confusion,  misdirected  effort  and  a  wretched 
wasting  of  life  result  from  them,  that  knowledge, 
science  and  art  are  all  for  man's  sake,  are  tools,  and 
must  never  be  hypostatized  into  self -existent  realities. 
So  much  for  ideals  about  what  we  should  teach. 
Next  comes  the  question,  What  result  should  we 
seek  when  we  teach  it  ?  What  does  teaching  these 
various  lessons  that  the  race  has  learned,  and  values, 
do  for  the  learner?  Or,  in  other  words,  what  is 
education  ?  Here  so  many  ideals  are  held  by  teachers 
that  I  can  not  examine  them  all.  I  will  select  three 
for  your  consideration.  The  first  is  that  education 
imparts  knowledge  —  that  teachers  have  it  and 
students  do  not  have  it  and  students  go  to  school  that 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    13 

teachers  or  textbooks  or  both  together  may  pass  it 
over,  hand  it  out,  impart  it  or  deliver  it  to  them. 
Many  people  think  schools  are  knowledge-shops, 
where  pounds,  ounces,  pennyweights  of  knowledge  are 
transferred  to  the  young.  They  do  this  perhaps 
because  they  see  teachers  constantly  engaged  in 
testing  their  students  to  find  out  how  much  of  what 
has  been  delivered  to  them  they  retain  and  can 
hand  back  again.  But  if  you  will  stop  for  a  moment 
and  consider  what  sort  of  a  thing  knowledge  is,  you 
will  see  that  no  teacher  can  hand  over  or  share  his 
knowledge  with  his  pupil  any  more  than  he  can  hand 
over  or  share  his  headache  or  his  toothache  with 
him.  My  knowledge  is  the  body  of  sensations, 
perceptions,  memories,  images,  thoughts,  feelings, 
and  volitions  that  I  am  aware  of,  somewhat  reduced 
to  order,  classified  and  arranged  so  that  when  some- 
thing happens  that  calls  for  a  reaction  from  me  I  am 
able  to  make  that  reaction  and  do  what  should  be 
done  next.  If  you  speak  to  me  in  English  I  can 
answer  you  in  English,  for  I  have  a  knowledge  of 
English  words,  but  if  you  speak  to  me  in  Italian  I 
can  not  answer  you  in  Italian,  for  I  have  no  knowledge 
of  that  language.  If  you  ask  me  what  2  and  7  and 
9  make  I  can  tell  you,  but  if  you  put  me  into  the 
midst  of  a  battle  and  ask  me  what  to  do  next,  I  can 
not  tell  you,  nor  can  I  do  it  if  you  give  the  commands, 
for  I  have  not  learned  how  to  work  by  that  action- 
system.  We  go  to  school  to  learn  to  use  our  own 
minds  in  the  several  most  important  ways  in  which 
the  race  has  found  it  necessary  to  use  minds,  to  learn 
to  work  by  the  action-systems  that  the  race  has 


14  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

learned  to  prefer.  It  is  always  our  own  thoughts 
that  we  learn  to  work  with.  If  the  teacher  tells  me 
that  three  and  five  make  eight,  I  must  think  three  and 
then  five  and  I  must  combine  them.  If  she  says  that 
Christopher  Columbus  discovered  America  in  1492, 1 
must  form  a  notion  of  what  is  meant  by  Christopher 
Columbus,  by  discovered,  and  by  America,  and  I 
must  work  out  or  make  my  own  notion  of  what  1492 
means.  The  teacher  does  not  give  me  her  thoughts. 
She  can  not.  Nobody  can.  All  she  can  do  is  to 
put  me  into  a  condition  in  which  I  must  generate 
and  make  use  of  my  own. 

The  mistaken  notion  that  education  is  the  impart- 
ing of  knowledge,  the  delivering  or  conferring  or 
handing  out  of  knowledge,  with  all  the  confusion  and 
waste  that  follows  from  it  in  schools,  is  due  to  certain 
foolish  statements  which  we  allow  ourselves  to  make 
concerning  language.  We  say  that  it  imparts 
thought  or  vehicles  thought  or  expresses  thought  or 
conveys  thought.  It  does  nothing  of  the  sort. 
Thoughts  can  not  be  sent  from  one  person  to  an- 
other. They  never  pass  through  the  air.  They  do 
not  ride  on  words  or  leave  us  when  we  move  our  lips 
and  disturb  the  air  about  us  in  such  a  way  that  that 
disturbance  reaches  the  tympanum  of  an  auditor. 
If  I  speak  to  you,  you  feel  a  sound,  but  you  make  your 
own  meaning  to  fit  that  sound.  If  the  sound  is  of  a 
language  strange  to  you,  you  say  you  can  not  make 
out  what  I  mean.  Language  is  only  a  system  of 
signals.  When  I  can  make  them  out,  I  can  under- 
stand what  you  mean,  but  the  thought  which  I  make 
to  fit  your  sounds,  your  words,  is  my  own  thought, 


CONTEMPORARY   IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    15 

not  yours.  In  place  of  saying  that  language  imparts 
thought  or  conveys  thought,  we  should  say  that 
language  demands  thought,  or  requires  thought  or 
necessitates  thought  or  arouses  thought  or  provokes 
it.  The  teacher  is  a  provoker  of  thought,  not 
one  who  purveys  or  supplies  it,  and  the  thought  and 
knowledge  which  the  student  makes  are  his  own. 
Education  then  simply  puts  him  into  conditions  in 
which  he,  using  what  men  have  said  and  done  in 
past  time  and  what  men  say  and  do  now  as  raw 
material  for  his  own  constructing,  makes  up  his  own 
mind  about  the  matter  and  so  builds  up  his  own 
knowledge. 

The  other  mistaken  ideal  of  education  to  which  a 
great  many  teachers  devote  themselves  and  their 
students,  as  I  believe  altogether  in  vain,  is  not 
concerned  with  the  imparting  of  knowledge  but  with 
the  creating  of  mind.  Those  who  follow  this  ideal 
seem  to  say  that  our  minds  are  very  imperfect  things 
at  birth,  that  they  must  be  made  over,  improved, 
renovated,  disciplined,  sharpened,  drawn  out,  made 
supple,  developed  and  perfected.  Do  you  remember 
the  story  of  the  man  who  went  about  the  streets  of 
an  ancient  city  crying  "new  lamps  for  old  "  ?  You 
say  there  never  was  such  a  man.  Do  not  be  too  sure 
about  it.  The  professors  who  hold  this  view  go 
about  crying  "new  minds  for  old,"  "new  minds  for 
old."  They  say  that  certain  studies  are  valuable 
not  because  we  can  not  possibly  get  along  without 
knowing  their  content,  but  because  they  form  a  sort 
of  grindstone  on  which  we  must  sharpen  our  in- 
tellects. I  believe  that  this  doctrine  is  a  superstition 


16  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

and  a  baneful  one,  and  that  no  other  educational 
ideal  begins  to  take  such  a  toll  of  young  lives  as  this 
one  does.  It  is  an  idol  which  is  worshiped  chiefly 
in  our  colleges,  but  they  make  both  enforced  and 
voluntary  converts  to  it  in  the  high  schools  and 
voluntary  converts  to  it  in  the  elementary  schools 
of  our  country.  Ask  the  teacher  of  spelling  or 
arithmetic  or  geography  why  he  believes  in  spelling 
for  the  sake  of  spelling,  or  arithmetic  which  no  one 
outside  of  school  uses,  or  geography  which  one  will 
never  again  refer  to  in  life,  or  grammar  the  use  of 
which  no  student  understands,  and  he  will  tell  you 
that  it  is  because  these  lessons  are  good  for  the  mind, 
they  strengthen  it,  make  it  facile,  increase  its  power 
and  sharpen  the  wits  of  the  young.  But  no  teacher 
ever  has  to  get  inside  the  mind  or  do  any  burnishing 
or  repair  work  there,  no  teacher  ever  has  to  add  any 
cubits  to  its  stature  or  build  any  additions  to  it. 
That  simply  can  not  be  done.  "Learning  Greek 
teaches  Greek,  and  nothing  else;  certainly  not 
common  sense,  if  that  have  failed  to  precede  the 
teaching,"  said  Browning.  In  the  Harvard  Club  in 
Boston  there  is  a  room  set  apart  for  the  use  of  the 
graduates  of  the  Medical  School,  and  over  the  fire- 
place in  that  room  is  an  inscription,  a  motto  which 
states  in  a  sentence  the  ideal,  the  philosophy  of  the 
medical  profession.  It  is  this:  "We  dress  the 
wound,  God  heals  it."  Now  if  we  were  to  try  to 
make  a  sound  ideal  for  the  teaching  profession,  a 
philosophy  which  we  could  all  unite  in  following, 
what  form  should  it  take?  This  I  think:  "We 
train  people  to  use  their  minds ;  God  makes  them." 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    17 

That  training  is  always  specific,  never  general.  It  is 
always  learning  to  do  this,  that  or  the  other  particular 
thing,  never  learning  to  act  in  general. 

What  specific  things  shall  we  train  them  to  do? 
You  see,  just  as  soon  as  you  give  up  intellectualism 
with  its  mirror-up-to-nature  ideal  and  its  knowledge- 
for-the-sake-of -knowledge  slogan,  you  must  take  the 
position  that  knowledge  is  not  a  luxury,  but  an  in- 
dispensable human  necessity.  It  is  not  having  it 
that  makes  it  valuable,  it  is  doing  by  its  aid  or  with 
it.  Knowledge  therefore  becomes  different  from 
facts ;  it  is  what  we  do  about  facts ;  it  is  learning  to 
work  with  facts,  making  them  come  our  way  or 
getting  ready  for  them  by  foreseeing  them.  That  is, 
knowledge,  real  knowledge,  is  always  a  kind  of 
skill.  The  person  who  has  it  is  different  from  other 
folks  in  what  he  can  do.  To  know  French  means  to 
speak,  write  and  read  French,  to  know  ethics  means 
to  be  constrained  to  ethical  thought  and  action,  to 
know  science  means  to  maintain  the  suspended 
judgment  rather  than  the  snap  judgment,  to  collect 
the  necessary  information  and  try  out  our  mental 
conclusions  before  we  assert  them  or  act  upon  them. 
Though  studies  have  curiously  different  kinds  of  names, 
some  of  them  names  ending  in  ing  and  other  names 
ending  in  ic,  y,  or  ry,  that  is  due  to  some  false  notions 
on  the  part  of  the  men  who  named  them.  They  are 
all  ing  studies  and  serve  no  other  purpose  than  to 
train  us  to  use  our  own  minds  upon  the  matters  of 
which  they  treat  in  the  ways  that  the  race  has  thus 
far  found  it  most  useful  to  work  in  its  struggles  to 
master  these  matters.  According  to  this  ideal  every 


18  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

child  goes  to  school  for  exactly  the  same  reason  that 
an  apprentice  goes  to  a  blacksmith  shop,  i.e.,  to 
learn  to  work  with  or  operate  or  use  certain  highly 
important  social  tools  which  the  race  has  wrought 
out  with  which  to  perform  its  work. 

Every  society  teaches  its  children  to  think  about 
the  things  which  it  cares  for,  to  do  the  things  which 
it  values.  The  school  is  simply  society's  most  con- 
scious effort  to  keep  itself  alive  and  to  renew  itself. 
It  can  not  be  the  same  in  the  different  countries,  for 
it  is  the  chosen  agency  for  realizing  the  national 
ideal.  When  Socrates  was  in  prison  awaiting  exe- 
cution his  friend  Crito  came  to  him  and  said  :  I  have 
arranged  everything.  The  prison  doors  are  open. 
You  can  escape  and  cross  the  frontiers  of  Attica  to 
safety  if  you  will.  But,  said  Socrates,  nothing  is 
worth  doing  that  must  not  first  be  thought  about. 
Let  us  think  about  this.  Injustice  and  death  are  of 
slight  concern  to  a  man  who  is  innocent,  but  doing 
injury  to  his  own  soul  is  of  great  concern.  And  then, 
as  you  will  recall,  he  imagines  the  personified  Laws  of 
Athens  coming  to  him  and  asking  him  if  he  can  be 
planning  to  destroy  them.  They  say  to  him,  "Did 
we  not  bring  you  into  existence  ?  Was  it  not  by  our 
authority  that  your  father  married  your  mother  and 
begat  you?  Are  not  those  of  us  reasonable  which 
commanded  your  father  to  train  you  in  music  and 
gymnastic  ?  .  .  .  No  one  of  us  has  hindered  you  or 
any  other  citizen  after  he  comes  of  age  and  has 
examined  our  management  of  the  city  and  finds 
that  it  does  not  please  him  from  taking  all  that 
belongs  to  him  and  going  wherever  he  pleases.  .  .  . 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    19 

But  whoever  among  you  who  after  examining  and 
seeing  how  we  give  judgment  and  manage  the  other 
affairs  of  the  city,  chooses  to  remain,  pledges  himself 
in  very  deed  to  abide  by  us  and  perform  whatsoever 
we  command." 

"The  greatest  discovery  ever  made  by  man,"  says 
Sir  Henry  Jones,  "was  made  by  the  Greeks  when 
cutting  themselves  free  from  the  traditions  of  the 
ancient  world  they  alighted  upon  the  conception  of  a 
civil  state  where  citizens  should  be  free.  The  most 
momentous  experiment  of  mankind  is  that  of 
carrying  out  their  conception  to  its  ultimate  con- 
sequences in  a  true  democracy."  That  most  momen- 
tous experiment  we  are  carrying  out.  The  means 
which  the  Athenians,  though  not  of  our  blood,  our 
true  ancestors,  chose,  are  the  means  which  we  choose. 
Our  laws  compel  the  parent  to  have  his  child  trained 
in  the  elements  of  education.  In  this  we  try  to  carry 
on  the  early  Athenian  practice,  to  put  into  effect  the 
advice  of  Plato  and  of  Aristotle  and  to  realize  the 
effort  which  Charles  the  Great  and  Alfred  the  Great, 
with  unerring  vision  of  what  is  necessary  to  a  state, 
made  in  vain.  The  child  does  not  belong  to  his 
parents,  but  to  the  state,  to  organized  society  as  a 
whole.  The  parents  have  duties  to  him  but  no 
property  in  him.  He  must,  whether  his  parents  are 
willing  or  are  not  willing,  spend  his  earlier  years  as 
an  apprentice  to  certain  social  activities  which  he 
will  have  to  continue  to  perform  as  long  as  he  lives. 
He  must  be  taught  to  read  and  write  and  use  the 
language  of  our  country  and  work  with  the  aid  of 
numbers.  He  must  build  up  his  own  notions  of  the 


20  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

world,  become  familiar  with  the  songs  and  stories 
of  his  race,  and  come  to  a  realizing  sense  of  what 
sort  of  an  undertaking  he  has  inherited  and  what 
has  already  been  attempted  and  accomplished  in  it 
before  he  came. 

These  things  have  become  so  much  a  matter  of 
second  nature  to  us  that  their  real  meaning  is  over- 
looked. Is  it  of  overwhelming  importance  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  that  every  child  shall 
learn  to  read?  Well,  let  us  see.  Many  things  are 
happening  in  this  world,  and  in  the  lurid  light  re- 
flected from  other  lands  we  are  able  more  clearly 
to  discern  the  features  of  our  own  life.  In  the 
United  States  96  per  cent  of  the  people  can  read,  in 
Mexico  80  per  cent  of  the  people  can  not.  Because 
of  that,  and  because  of  that  only,  certain  things 
happen  in  Mexico  which  could  not  possibly  happen 
in  the  United  States.  One  of  them  is  that  spoken 
words  have  an  undue  power  there.  If  an  orator 
stands  on  a  street  corner  in  Mexico  and  makes  a 
fiery  speech  to  the  people  telling  them  that  their 
liberties  are  being  stolen  from  them,  that  they  must 
arm  themselves  and  march  against  the  tyrant  and 
destroy  him,  the  chances  are  perhaps  about  90  to 
10  that  a  number  of  them  will  rush  to  arms  at  once 
and  a  new  revolution  will  be  on.  Why?  Because 
not  having  the  means  to  be  critical,  little  arises  in 
their  minds  to  challenge  and  dispute  that  which 
they  hear  so  convincingly  uttered.  Not  being  able 
to  read  they  are  the  unwilling  dupes  of  unprincipled 
adventurers  who  trade  upon  their  eager  credulity 
and  buy  and  sell  them  to  suit  a  private  advantage. 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    21 

Surely  the  ability  to  read  the  yellowest  journal  in 
existence  would  make  one  more  self-protective  than 
that.  Education  exists  to  make  men  free,  and 
teaching  folks  to  read  arms  them  with  a  means  of 
self-protection  by  which  they  can  checkmate  the 
schemes  of  impostors.  With  a  free  press  it  makes 
public  opinion  possible.  Teaching  folks  to  write  is 
not  so  clearly  indispensable,  but  it  does  enable  us  to 
talk  to  our  friends  who  are  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
voices,  it  provides  a  nearly  indestructible  memory 
and  is  a  requisite  in  many  callings.  Teaching  them 
to  number  gives  a  sense  of  security  against  being 
cheated  in  the  simple  reckonings  of  life  and  enables  us 
to  understand  the  social  arrangements  of  time  and 
space. 

These  are  the  three  R's.  The  cry  perpetually  goes 
up  in  this  land,  now  from  this  critic  of  the  public 
schools,  now  from  that,  that  they  constitute  the 
whole  duty  of  elementary  education,  that  whatsoever 
is  more  than  these  cometh  of  faddism  and  should 
be  driven  out.  Is  this  sound  ?  Let  us  go  back  to 
Mexico.  John  Stuart  Mill  used  to  say  that  social 
and  political  theories  can  not  be  tested  in  a  laboratory, 
they  do  not  lend  themselves  to  experimental  control. 
Yet  political  theories  do  display  themselves  upon  a 
great  stage,  and  if  we  will  but  take  note  of  what  is 
happening  all  about  us,  we  shall  find  that  it  corrects 
our  own  theories  and  tells  us  much  about  our  prob- 
lems. Even  the  person  among  us  who  is  least 
informed  about  Mexico  must  have  concluded  from 
what  he  has  read  that  one  trouble  with  that  unhappy 
country  is  lack  of  education.  "Schools  for  the 


22  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

people"  is  a  cry  of  the  revolutionists,  and  despite 
the  fact  that  they  claim  to  have  created  fewer  schools 
than  they  destroyed  and  that  these  schools  lead  but 
a  precarious  and  fitful  existence,  the  problem  of 
Mexico  no  matter  what  else  happens,  whether  home 
recovery  or  intervention,  must  be  solved  by  her 
schools.  What  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that? 
What  is  the  problem  of  Mexico?  It  is  an  Indian 
country.  Of  its  16,000,000  people  38  per  cent  are 
pure-blooded  Indians,  43  are  mixed,  and  but  19  per 
cent  are  whites.  WTien  Cortes  came  there  in  1519 
he  found  the  Indians  living  in  tribes  throughout 
the  land  and  having  few  relations  with  their  fellows 
of  other  tribes,  save  to  make  nearly  incessant  war 
upon  them.  Mirabeau  said  a  hundred  years  ago 
that  war  is  the  national  industry  of  Prussia.  Well, 
war  was  the  national  industry  of  Mexico.  WTien 
the  Spaniards  came  they  did  not  fuse  the  Indians 
into  one  people.  They  were  not  one  people  them- 
selves. Even  to  this  day  the  king  of  Spain  is  not 
crowned  king  of  Spain,  but  king  of  the  Spains. 
Catalonia,  Castile,  Aragon,  Granada  and  the  other 
Spains  sent  their  contingents  to  Mexico.  They 
grouped  themselves  together,  the  men  of  each  of  the 
Spains  by  themselves  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try ;  they  maintained  their  own  customs  and  their 
differences,  and  thus  upon  the  antagonisms  and 
repellencies  of  the  ever-warring  native  tribes  were 
superimposed  the  antagonisms  and  repellencies  of 
mutually  jealous  conquerors  who  had  never  been  one 
people.  These  differences  did  not  heal  themselves; 
they  multiplied.  The  ills  of  Mexico  are  due  to  lack 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    23 

of  unity.  "The  trouble  with  us,"  says  one  distin- 
guished Mexican,  "is  that  we  can  not  trust  each 
other."  The  problem  of  Mexico  is  to  create  unity, 
to  bring  it  to  pass  that  her  people  shall  learn  to  value 
the  same  things,  to  desire  the  same  things,  to  hope 
for  the  same  things,  to  strive  for  the  same  things; 
that  is  the  problem  of  Europe  also,  and  that  is  the 
problem  of  the  United  States. 

Each  one  of  us  is  born  a  being  separate  from  his 
fellows  and  from  the  surrounding  things  of  nature. 
We  must  make  two  conquests  and  keep  making 
them  as  long  as  we  live.  One  of  these  is  the  con- 
quest of  nature,  the  other  is  the  conquest  of  social 
relations.  The  conquest  of  nature  is  relatively  easy, 
but  the  conquest  of  social  relations  is  so  difficult 
that  as  yet  but  a  mere  beginning  has  been  made 
in  it.  The  earth  produces  food  enough  and  to  spare 
for  all  of  us,  but  at  this  moment  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands starve  and  millions  go  to  death  in  paroxysms 
of  unspeakable  anguish.  There  is  but  one  way  out 
of  it.  It  is  the  final  word  of  religion,  philosophy, 
literature,  political  theory  and  morals.  It  is  the 
problem  of  education ;  men,  all  men,  must  learn 
that  they  are  brothers. 

How  can  we  be  brought  to  value  the  same  things, 
to  desire  the  same  things,  to  hope  for  the  same 
things  and  to  strive  for  the  same  things?  The 
problem  of  Mexico  can  not  be  solved  by  opening 
schools  throughout  the  Republic  and  teaching  every 
Mexican  boy  and  girl  merely  to  read,  write  and 
cipher,  in  them.  Many  of  the  most  frantic  de- 
stroyers of  lives  there  have  had  that  training. 


24  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Teaching  them  to  read  may  decrease  their  over- 
susceptibility  to  deception,  but  no  amount  of  zeal 
in  instructing  them  in  the  three  R's  only  or  of  in- 
structing our  people  in  them  will  convert  them  into 
one  people,  with  a  common  consciousness,  striving  for 
a  common  ideal  and  helping  each  other  to  realize 
it.  The  state,  said  Aristotle,  is  a  mutual  under- 
taking of  friends.  It  does  not  exist  for  the  sake  of 
alliance  and  security  from  injustice  nor  yet  for  ex- 
change and  mutual  intercourse,  but  for  the  good 
life.  Animals  and  slaves  can  not  form  it,  for  they 
have  no  share  in  happiness  or  in  a  life  of  free  choice. 
Christianity  enlarged  this  Greek  lesson  to  include 
the  entire  family  of  mankind.  God  is  the  Father 
of  all ;  all  are  his  children ;  life  is  the  mutual  Jeff  ort 
of  common  humanity  to  assist  each  other,  to  value 
the  same  things,  to  desire  the  same  things,  to  hope 
and  work  for  the  same  things.  Only  as  the  state 
enables  its  citizens  to  do  this  can  it  be  a  state,  and 
only  as  the  people  of  a  nation  assist  the  peoples  of 
other  nations  to  do  this  can  it  be  a  nation. 

Unity  of  desire,  unity  of  plan  and  aspiration, 
unity  of  resolution  and  of  action,  the  lesson  of  unity 
must  be  taught  in  the  schools  of  Mexico,  and  in 
the  schools  of  England,  France,  Germany  and  the 
United  States,  and  it  must  be  the  chief  lesson  which 
is  taught  there.  In  the  light  of  this  principle  we  see 
what  the  real  studies  are.  They  are  not  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic,  they  are  not  the  sciences 
or  mathematics,  valuable  as  these  all  are.  They 
are  not  the  languages  studied  merely  for  their 
disciplinary  effect.  They  are  those  studies  that 


CONTEMPORARY  IDEALS  IN  EDUCATION    25 

take  us  up,  as  it  were,  on  a  high  mountain  and  show 
us  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  and  the  great  pulsing 
vivid  panorama  of  human  effort  and  striving  that 
goes  on  in  them.  The  mission  of  these  studies  is  to 
make  us  ever  mindful  of  what  in  its  long  struggle 
mankind  has  attempted,  hoped  for,  and  done,  that 
—  in  that  most  moving  phase  from  the  trenches  — 
we  may  "carry  on."  I  have  often  thought  and  often 
said  if  I  were  compelled  to  choose  from  among  all 
the  studies  we  teach  one  and  only  one  for  my  child 
to  learn,  I'd  rather  have  him  learn  the  songs  of  our 
country  than  any  other  thing ;  for  there  are  certain 
sentiments  too  precious  and  too  dear  to  be  intrusted 
to  the  everyday  forms  of  communication  or  even 
to  be  intrusted  to  that  extraordinary  form  which  we 
call  poetry.  We  give  those  sentiments  a  more  com- 
pelling power  over  us.  We  sing  them  and  thus  secure 
for  them  the  peculiar  privilege  of  saying  themselves 
over  and  over  again  in  our  hearts.  I'd  choose 
these  songs  first,  and  after  them  poetry,  stories, 
history,  geography,  ethics.  In  later  years  philos- 
ophy, literature  and  science  would  assert  their 
claims.  Disciplinary  studies  would  be  banished. 
Physical  training  would  call  for  more  attention  even 
than  it  got  in  Greece.  Each  child  would  be  taught 
the  elements  of  a  trade.  No  child  would  be  taught 
anything  that  he  could  ever  as  long  as  he  lived  feel 
that  he  was  through  with.  Efficiency  would  be  the 
object,  but  not  that  lop-sided  and  deformed  effi- 
ciency that  comes  from  the  ability  to  control  things 
only,  but  that  larger  efficiency  that  seeks  first  the 
welfare  of  the  kingdom  of  men.  What  is  taught 


26  WHAT  THE   WAR  TEACHES 

would  not  be  handed  down  on  authority.  Instruc- 
tion would  not  be  a  militarizing  of  the  minds  of  the 
young.  Each  student  should  use  his  own  mind, 
should  think  his  own  thoughts,  should  put  his  own 
values  upon  things  and  men  and  be  convinced  by  his 
own  conviction.  Each  student  would  study  reading 
in  order  to  read,  arithmetic  to  become  an  arith- 
metician, geography  in  order  to  be  his  own  geographer 
by  continually  studying  the  earth  and  man's  relation 
to  it,  history  that  he  might  learn  to  work  with  and 
by  the  aid  of  historic  facts,  science  in  order  to  him- 
self be  scientific  by  employing  the  methods  of  science, 
literature  that  he  might  make  out  its  message  and  be 
his  own  critic  and  appraiser  of  that  which  is  written, 
and  ethics  that  he  might  make  up  his  own  mind 
about  human  conduct  and  guide  his  life  accordingly. 
He  must  of  course  become  self-supporting,  but  it  is 
even  more  important  that  he  become  society-support- 
ing. These  are  indeed  but  two  aspects  of  one  and 
the  same  requirement.  He  must  pull  his  own  weight 
and  must  meet  the  standards  of  living,  but  he  must 
also  do  his  part  in  improving  and  raising  the  stand- 
ards of  living.  It  is  not  enough  that  he  be  trained 
to  fit  into  his  environment.  He  must  be  trained  to 
make  it  over  into  a  better  social  environment.  There 
is,  in  short,  but  one  ideal  of  education.  It  is, 
and  everywhere  must  be,  the  process  by  which  each 
child  of  the  race  guided  by  his  own  interest,  employ- 
ing his  own  attention,  and  using  his  own  mind  in 
comprehending  the  process  of  human  living,  becomes 
a  person  who  thinks,  desires  and  acts  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  social  laws. 


THE  CHILD  IN  MODERN  SOCIETY1 

SIGMUND  ENGEL  begins  his  book  "The  Elements 
of  Child  Protection"  2  with  the  statement:  "In  the 
struggle  for  existence  among  the  nations,  that  nation 
is  the  victor  which  consists  of  the  greatest  number  of 
individuals  best  endowed  with  bodily,  mental  and 
moral  health.  No  national  entity  can  resist  the 
attacks  of  others  if  its  numerical  strength  is  com- 
paratively small."  According  to  this  view  children 
must  be  protected  in  order  that  the  state  may  be 
victorious.  The  place  of  the  child  in  the  modern 
societies  which  look  at  things  this  way  is  that  of 
prospective  cannon  fodder.  Our  whole  being  cries 
out  against  such  a  doctrine.  National  existence  is 
not  the  end  but  the  means  to  the  life  of  individuals. 
We  do  not  exist  that  the  United  States  may  be.  It 
exists  that  we  may  be.  Men  are  not  work  animals 
owned  by  masters  who  have  the  power  at  will  to 
send  them  to  the  slaughter. 

The  great  war  which  is  now  devastating  the  earth 
is  a  struggle  between  two  radically  opposed  con- 
ceptions of  life,  between  two  irreconcilable  philoso- 
phies. Their  opposition  is  as  old  as  Sparta  and 
Athens.  The  one  conceives  man  as  belonging  to  the 
state,  as  its  personal  property  with  which  its  officers 

1  An  address  before  the  Council  of  Social  Agencies,  Los  Angeles, 
Calif.,  June  29th,  1915. 

z  The  Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1912. 

27 


28  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

may  do  what  they  please;  the  other  conceives  the 
state  as  belonging  to  the  men  who  compose  it  as  an 
instrument  designed  to  minister  to  their  needs,  an 
organization  to  secure  for  all  of  us  certain  things 
which  are  indispensable  to  each  of  us  which  we  can 
not  secure  for  ourselves. 

The  war  is  searching  the  hearts  of  all  living  folks, 
forcing  them  to  decide  what  they  believe  men  are 
for,  what  human  life  really  is,  what  states  may  do 
with  their  citizens,  and  what  citizens  should  do  in 
states.  There  was  a  time  when  mothers  gladly, 
with  a  profound  sense  of  religious  devotion,  threw 
their  infants  into  the  fiery  arms  of  Moloch.  Moloch 
was  an  idol  which  men  had  made  and  set  over  them- 
selves. The  state  which  is  an  entity  above  and 
superior  to  the  totality  of  its  population,  which  its 
people  exist  for  and  which  does  not  exist  for  them, 
is  an  idol.  It  demands  insatiably  countless  heca- 
tombs of  living  men  who  go  to  their  death  as  gladly 
as  chosen  youths  went  to  their  death  as  human 
sacrifices  to  the  old  gods  of  Mexico,  and  as  vainly. 
Let  us  abjure  the  worship  of  idols.  They  take  a 
heavy  toll  of  lives.  It  is  true  that  they  are  no 
longer  made  of  wood  or  stone.  They  are  gods  made 
by  false  thinking.  Whenever  men  say  that  life  is 
for  anything  else  than  life,  whenever  they  declare 
that  it  is  for  the  state,  for  conquest,  for  national 
glory,  for  art  for  art's  sake,  for  knowledge  for 
knowledge's  sake,  or  for  any  other  of  the  abstractions 
which  men  have  in  vanity  made  into  gods  and  to 
which  they  attribute  a  greater  reality  than  that 
which  their  own  lives  possess,  they  are  indulging  in 


THE   CHILD   IN  MODERN  SOCIETY        29 

idolatry,  inhuman,  debasing  and  destructive  as  any 
which  the  world  has  known.  If  a  few  of  us  are  to 
be  high  priests  of  abstractions  and  are  given  power 
by  our  fellows  to  condemn  the  rest  of  men  to  give 
up  their  lives  that  we  may  worship  the  false  gods 
whom  we  serve  in  whatever  way  we  please,  it  were 
better  that  no  more  children  were  born.  For  unless 
life  is  a  sacred  and  a  holy  thing,  an  end  in  itself,  not 
in  the  service  of  anything  but  life,  it  is  plain  that 
non-existence  is  much  to  be  preferred.  Let  us 
disavow  the  superiority  of  that  which  man  creates 
to  man  its  creator.  Modern  society  does  not  exist  to 
glorify  states  or  to  do  the  will  of  medievally  minded 
kings.  Children  have  a  value  to  society  quite 
apart  from  the  fact  they  will  grow  into  soldiers  or 
will  give  birth  to  soldiers.  The  false  philosophy  of 
the  state  which  has  grown  up  in  Germany  with  the 
hideous  consequences  which  we  see  must  be  de- 
stroyed. The  earth  will  not  be  a  fit  place  for  children 
to  grow  up  in  until  it  is  eradicated.  It  is  difficult 
to  believe  in  the  value  of  life  in  the  midst  of  a  world 
which  values  human  life  so  little.  How  bitterly 
have  we  been  imposed  upon  when  we  thought  and 
talked  about  being  civilized  while  men  went  about 
with  this  awful  thing  up  their  sleeves ! 

In  this  our  land  we  run  little  risk  of  being  deceived 
by  a  false  philosophy  of  what  the  state  is.  We  know 
very  well  that  our  institutions  exist  to  serve  us,  not 
we  to  serve  them.  This  does  not  mean  that  we  shall 
not  maintain  them  with  our  lives.  We  shall  main- 
tain them  because  they  serve  us.  But  we  shall  not 
assume  that  they  are  inexpressibly  precious  in 


30  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

themselves  no  matter  what  they  do,  that  they  are 
God's  appointed  way  for  all  men  to  live  and  that  it 
is  our  sacred  duty  to  offer  every  man  who  exists 
the  choice  between  letting  us  regulate  his  life  or 
taking  up  the  sword.  The  thing  that  we  exist  for 
is  the  good  life  of  each  one  of  us.  The  child  has  no 
other  reason  for  being  than  that  he  may  have  life 
and  have  it  abundantly.  Our  problem  is  to  guarantee 
it  to  him,  to  surround  him  with  the  influences  which 
make  for  it  and  to  keep  away  from  him  the  agencies 
of  destruction. 

What  a  strangely  curious  thing  life  is !  We  come 
here  without  being  consulted ;  we  are  here  for  but  a 
little  time,  and  all  our  hopes  and  plans,  all  of  the 
little  work  we  try  to  do,  all  our  anticipations  and  our 
fond  desires  to  make  of  earth  a  better  place  and 
to  improve  the  condition  of  men  live  on  only  in 
our  children.  If  we  could  once  realize  the  human 
pathos  of  our  lot,  if  we  could  but  feel  our  own 
dependence  upon  the  young  for  living  for  us  when  we 
shall  no  more  be  here,  I  think  we  should  be  more 
solicitous  for  their  well  being.  In  a  passage  in  the 
"Laws"  Plato  tells  us  that  a  man  "must  cling  to  the 
eternal  life  of  the  world  by  leaving  behind  him  his 
children's  children  so  that  they  may  minister  to  God 
in  his  place"  (773  E).  By  ministering  to  God  he 
meant  that  the  children  should  go  on  making  straight 
what  the  parent  had  tried  to  make  straight,  ennobling 
what  the  parent  had  tried  to  ennoble,  perfecting 
what  he  had  tried  to  perfect  and  glorifying  what  he 
had  sought  to  glorify.  Theirs  was  to  be  a  secular 
ministration,  for  Plato  did  not  divide  his  world  into 


things  sacred  and  things  profane.  They  are  to  carry 
on  our  work  for  us,  to  keep  alive  what  we  have 
undertaken. 

The  child  is  born  into  this  world  of  human  pur- 
poses which  he  must  carry  forward.  He  is  every- 
where about  us,  yet  his  existence  is  apt  to  escape  us. 
Let  us,  if  we  can,  image  that  innumerable  company. 
The  author  of  the  "Invisible  Playmate"  rewords  in 
this  fashion  the  vision  of  the  children  which  a  quaint 
old  German  poet  calls  up  under  the  title  of  the  "First 
Day  at  School." 

All  over  the  world  —  and  all  under  it,  too,  when  their  time 
comes  —  the  children  are  trooping  to  school.  The  great  globe 
swings  round  out  of  the  dark  into  the  sun ;  there  is  always  morn- 
ing somewhere ;  and  forever  in  this  shifting  region  of  the  morn- 
ing-light the  good  Altegans  sees  the  little  ones  afoot  —  shining 
companies  and  groups,  couples  and  bright  solitary  figures;  for 
they  all  seem  to  have  a  soft  heavenly  light  upon  them.  He 
sees  them  in  country  lanes  and  rustic  villages ;  on  lonely  moor- 
lands, where  narrow  brown  foot  tracks  thread  the  expanse  of 
green  waste,  and  occasionally  a  hawk  hovers  overhead,  or  a 
mountain-ash  hangs  its  scarlet  berries  above  the  huge  fallen 
stones  set  up  by  the  Druids  in  the  days  of  old ;  he  sees  them 
on  the  hillsides  ["trails  of  little  feet  darkening  the  grass"  he 
observes],  in  the  woods,  on  the  stepping-stones  that  cross  the 
brook  in  the  glen,  along  the  sea  cliffs  and  on  the  wet  ribbed 
sands;  he  sees  them  in  the  crowded  streets  of  smoky  cities,  in 
small  rocky  islands,  in  places  far  inland  where  the  sea  is  known 
only  as  a  strange  tradition.  The  morning-side  of  the  planet  is 
alive  with  them ;  one  hears  pattering  footsteps  everywhere. 
And  as  the  vast  continents  sweep  "eastering  out  of  the  high 
shadow  which  reaches  beyond  the  moon  .  .  .  and  as  new  nations, 
with  their  cities  and  villages,  their  fields,  woods,  mountains  and 
seashores,  rise  up  to  the  morning-side,  lo !  fresh  troops  and  still 
fresh  troops,  and  yet  again  fresh  troops  of  '  these  small  school- 


32  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

going  people  of  the  dawn,'  each  smallest  lad  as  he  crosses  the 
home-threshold  that  morning  is  a  Columbus  steering  to  a  new 
world,  to  a  Golden  Indies  that  truly  lies  —  at  last  —  beyond 
the  sunset.  He  is  a  little  Ulysses  outward  bound  on  a  long 
voyage,  where-through  help  him,  thou  dear  Heaven,  past  the 
Calypso  Isles  and  Harpy-shores  lest  he  perish  miserably." 

This  school-going  pageant  daily  follows  the  sun 
in  his  course. 

Now  turn  from  this  image  to  another.  A  friend  of 
mine  some  time  ago  projected  a  history  of  education 
which  unfortunately  he  has  not  completed.  That 
history  was  to  be  upon  a  new  plan.  It  was  to  be 
made  up  of  different  volumes,  each  one  of  which 
would  trace  the  story  of  the  particular  aspect  of 
school  work  which  it  treated  from  the  earliest 
recorded  beginnings  to  the  present  time.  One  vol- 
ume was  to  be  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  school- 
house,  another  to  the  history  of  school  administra- 
tion, another  to  the  growth  of  courses  of  study, 
another  to  teachers,  the  last  and  to  my  mind  the 
most  fascinating  was  to  be  a  history  of  school  children 
in  all  the  ages.  What  would  I  not  give  for  such  a 
priceless  book,  a  volume  which  would  enable  us  to 
see  the  generations  as  they  started  upon  the  course 
of  life,  to  note  the  esteem  in  which  their  parents  held 
them,  to  observe  the  care  with  which  they  nurtured 
them  and  the  influences  with  which  they  surrounded 
them  and  the  ideals  which  they  formed  for  them. 
"The  greatest  reverence,"  says  Juvenal,  "is  due  to  a 
child."  If  we  had  such  a  history  of  the  children,  it 
would  indeed  tell  us  how  men  regarded  themselves, 
what  visions  of  the  future  they  loved  to  dwell  on, 


THE  CHILD   IN  MODERN  SOCIETY        33 

and  what  deep  significance  life  seemed  to  them  to 
hold.  For  in  planning  for  the  welfare  of  the  children 
men  most  consciously  project  their  own  deepest 
hopes  and  most  intimately  reveal  their  own  souls. 
When  we  deliberate  about  them  we  are  attempting 
to  shape  the  very  structure  of  to-morrow,  to  select 
the  samples  of  lives  which  we  most  want  shall  be, 
and  in  this  conscious  effort  to  create  the  kind  of  men 
and  women  who  shall  come  after  us  and  profit  by 
our  mistakes  as  well  as  our  successes  it  is  given  us 
to  make  the  nearest  approach  to  the  divine  creative- 
ness  which  frail  mortals  are  allowed  to  make. 

What  then  do  we  want  for  the  children?  First 
of  all  that  they  shall  be  well  born  —  not  fated  by 
their  parents  to  a  life  of  physical  and  mental 
defectiveness.  Idiocy,  alcoholism  and  syphilis  must 
not  be  allowed  to  reproduce  themselves.  "The 
device  for  humanity  must  be,"  says  Engel,  "not 
natural  selection,  but  artificial  selection  —  eu- 
genics ! "  We  did  not  require  the  war  to  show  us  that 
we  are  in  but  a  beginning  stage  of  civilization.  Any 
one  who  has  noted  the  care  with  which  men  breed 
animals  and  plants  and  the  want  of  care  which  they 
show  in  the  breeding  of  children,  must  have  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  they  either  value  the  plants 
and  animals  and  do  not  value  their  children  or  that 
their  intelligence  is  so  weak  and  feeble  that  they  do 
not  recognize  the  fact  that  the  principles  of  breeding 
which  apply  to  the  plants  and  the  animals  apply  to 
the  children  also.  The  eugenists  must  simplify 
their  program;  when  they  reduce  it  to  manageable 
terms  we  shall  all  unite  with  them  to  put  it  into 


34  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

effect.  At  present  they  defeat  their  cause  and  our 
cause  too  by  claiming  a  larger  knowledge  than 
they  really  possess  and  by  not  devoting  themselves 
single  mindedly  to  the  enacting  of  legislation  which 
would  bring  about  the  segregation  or  if  need  be  the 
asexualization  of  all  individuals  who  belong  to  the 
classes  whose  children  are  certain  to  be  blighted  by 
their  heredity.  What  is  wanted  first  is  enlighten- 
ment, but  that  enlightenment  must  lead  to  coercion. 
Shall  society  revert  to  the  ancient  practice  of 
examining  all  who  are  born  and  picking  out  those 
children  who  are  not  fit  to  live  and  putting  them  to 
death?  "When  such  children  for  one  reason  or 
another,  find  their  way  into  the  world,  they  should 
be  quickly  and  painlessly  destroyed,"  writes  Engel. 
Such  children,  he  thinks,  are  high-grade  cretins, 
idiots  and  the  grossly  deformed.  They  can  never 
become  useful  members  of  society  and  to-day  the 
refinements  of  medical  skill  preserve  them  to  a  life 
of  martyrdom.  It  must  be  confessed  that  they  are 
a  serious  social  problem  and  it  is  not  clear  just  how 
that  problem  should  be  solved.  But  the  helpless 
are  by  no  means  socially  useless  because  they  are 
not  producers  and  can  never  handle  a  rifle.  They 
call  for  care  and  are  opportunities  for  kindliness  on 
the  part  of  the  sound  and  the  strong.  If  might 
makes  right,  since  they  do  not  possess  might  they 
should  go  under.  But  fortunately  this  is  not  the 
working  theory  of  most  nations ;  those  who  still 
believe  that  it  is  the  peace-makers  who  are  blessed, 
not  the  war-makers,  the  merciful,  not  the  merciless, 
the  poor  in  spirit,  not  the  arrogant,  the  meek  and 


THE  CHILD   IN  MODERN  SOCIETY        35 

not  the  proud,  will  have  a  care  against  breaking  into 
the  bloody  house  of  life  and  understanding  a  law. 
If  we  wish  men  to  value  life  we  shall  not  soon  take 
such  liberties  with  it. 

Society  does  not  want  to  propagate  defectives 
and  must  do  all  in  its  power  to  prevent  their  multi- 
plication. But  is  a  high  birth  rate  of  normal  children 
our  object?  Is  mere  fertility  of  the  stock  a  good, 
and  increase  of  the  population  a  national  virtue? 
Here  again  if  the  end  of  life  is  the  creation  of  a  vic- 
torious army  on  the  part  of  the  nation  to  which  we 
belong,  since  size  of  the  army  is  one  element  of  success 
in  battle  we  must  answer  yes,  a  high  birth  rate  is 
necessary  in  order  that  we  may  have  plenty  of 
soldiers  and  "realize  our  national  aspirations." 
But  if  we  are  more  interested  that  the  state  shall 
have  a  population  of  good  quality  rather  than  num- 
bers merely,  our  answer  must  be  no.  An  excessive 
number  of  births  will  mean  a  deterioration  in  the 
quality  of  the  stock  and  our  national  aspirations 
toward  a  higher  grade  of  existence,  greater  individual 
perfection,  a  better  social  order,  cleaner,  sweeter, 
happier  lives  and  a  progressive  realization  of  justice 
will  be  thwarted.  It  must  be  apparent  to  every 
American  that  the  ends  to  which  we  are  devoted  are 
not  served  by  a  high  birth  rate  but  rather  by  the 
quality  of  the  life  which  we  are  able  to  secure  for 
our  children. 

The  quality  of  their  life  is  in  large  part  determined 
by  social  heredity  —  by  the  kind  of  homes  they 
grow  up  in  —  by  the  nurture  which  attends  them  in 
the  earliest  years.  Which  are  the  most  important 


36  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

years  in  the  child's  welfare  ?  The  unanimous  answer 
of  all  the  great  thinkers,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Quintilian 
and  those  of  the  modern  day,  is  that  the  early  years 
are  most  decisive.  "The  beginning  is  the  most  im- 
portant period  in  the  case  of  a  young  and  tender 
nature  which  readily  takes  the  stamp  which  may 
be  impressed  upon  it."  The  psychoanalysis  of  the 
Freud  school  would  have  us  understand  that  a  child 
who  grows  up  in  a  home  in  which  mother  and  father 
are  continually  quarreling  can  not  have  a  normal 
temperament  or  a  happy  life.  He  is  bound  to  suffer 
the  penalties  of  emotional  wear  and  tear.  His  teeth 
are  literally  on  edge  and  his  nerves  in  a  jangle.  It 
makes  a  very  great  difference  to  him  through- 
out his  entire  life  what  kind  of  an  atmosphere  sur- 
rounded him  in  his  infancy.  One  can  hardly  make 
too  much  of  this  point.  Plato  seems  to  have  been 
quite  right  in  insisting  that  the  breezes  of  beauty  and 
health  should  blow  over  the  souls  of  the  children, 
that  the  poets  should  create  the  image  of  the  noble 
character  or  make  no  poetry  among  us,  that  the  other 
craftsmen  should  put  a  stop  to  embodying  the  charac- 
ter which  is  ill-disposed,  intemperate,  illiberal  and 
improper  in  their  pictures,  their  buildings  or  the 
other  products  of  their  craftsmanship  on  pain  of 
being  debarred  from  working  among  us  if  they  do 
not,  for  the  young  must  not  be  nurtured  upon  images 
of  badness  which  little  by  little  feed  them  until  they 
gather  a  huge  evil  in  their  souls.  The  graceful  and 
the  beautiful  must  be  their  surroundings,  bringing 
them  unconsciously  both  to  likeness  and  to  friendship 
with  the  law  of  beauty. 


THE  CHILD  IN  MODERN  SOCIETY        37 

Some  years  ago  Maurice  Hewlett  wrote  an  article 
which  appeared  in  the  "Nineteenth  Century  and 
After,"  in  which  he  suggested  that  as  England  already 
had  a  bureau  of  standards  where  the  standard  inch, 
foot,  yard,  pound,  gallon  and  bushel  are  kept,  where 
reference  to  them  may  be  made  to  correct  the  false- 
ness and  inaccuracy  of  the  measures  of  commerce,  she 
should  also  institute  a  bureau  of  social  standards. 
Let  a  fine  child  be  chosen,  he  said,  and  kept  at 
Westminster  and  whenever  bills  are  introduced  in 
Parliament  let  those  who  propose  them  be  required  to 
take  them  to  the  fine  child  at  Westminster  and  weigh 
them  against  him.  If  he  falls  in  the  scale,  let  the 
measure  be  rejected.  If  he  rises,  let  it  be  approved. 
If  we  weighed  social  conditions  in  terms  of  the  fine 
child,  much  that  is  proposed  would  have  to  be  rejected 
and  much  that  exists  would  have  to  be  repaired. 
Yet  he  is  the  social  standard.  Our  whole  duty  can 
be  summed  up  in  the  effort  to  make  of  this  world  a 
fit  place  for  him  to  live  in.  Take  this  standard 
into  any  city  or  into  any  country  place  and  by  its 
aid  you  will  soon  find  conditions  which  cry  aloud 
for  remedy.  There  are  the  tenements  without  pure 
air  and  sunlight.  He  can  not  grow  in  them.  There 
are  foul  unsanitary  surroundings.  He  can  not  exist 
in  them.  There  is  unspeakable  disorder,  hideous 
ugliness,  a  decaying  countryside,  a  city  district  which 
is  a  dump  heap.  What  kind  of  breezes  blow  over  the 
souls  of  the  children  from  these  places? 

Worse,  far  worse  than  the  menace  of  physical 
surroundings  utterly  uncared  for  and  run  down,  is  the 
disorder  and  despair  of  the  persons  who  are  his 


38  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

model,  who  give  him  the  only  suggestions  which  come 
to  him  and  standardize  his  conduct  and  his  taste.  If 
one  allows  himself  to  think  of  this  world,  for  a 
moment,  simply  as  a  place  for  children  to  grow  up 
in,  his  heart  sinks  at  its  blighting  unfitness  and 
the  lack  of  vigorous  effort  on  the  part  of  all  of 
us  who  are  alive  to  make  it  fit  for  them.  The  time 
will  come  when  conditions  will  be  arranged  to  pro- 
mote their  welfare,  when  Plato's  prophetic  dream 
of  an  environment  of  pleasant  places  ordered  and 
beautified  to  safeguard  the  souls  of  the  young  will 
come  true.  There  is  no  gainsaying  that  children 
suffer  much  from  their  elders,  from  the  despairing 
surroundings  in  which  they  are  brought  up,  from 
the  penury  and  want  of  hovel  and  garret,  and  from 
the  brutish  ignorance  and  filthiness  of  mind  which  not 
infrequently  attend  them.  One  may  not  be  able  to 
agree  with  Jean  Jacques,  that  they  are  born  good 
and  everywhere  become  bad  because  society  makes 
them  so,  but  he  will  at  least  admit  that  they  are 
born  to  take  the  stamp  of  the  influences  that  play 
upon  them  and  that  these  influences  are  not  in- 
frequently harmful. 

Quintilian  complains  of  "a  blind  and  indolent 
negligence  on  the  part  of  parents."  It  happens  far 
too  often  that  the  parent  is  the  natural  enemy  of 
the  child.  In  state  institutions  there  are  groups  of 
children  whose  parents  have  not  taken  pains  to 
housebreak  them  at  the  time  when  that  lesson  should 
be  taught.  As  a  result  they  grow  up  almost  like 
pariahs  in  conditions  which  no  normal  child  should  be 
allowed  to  continue  to  make  for  himself.  Society, 


THE   CHILD   IN   MODERN  SOCIETY        39 

as  a  whole,  is  not  without  its  responsibility  for  the  lot 
of  the  child,  but  parents  are  the  specially  deputed 
guardians  of  the  children.  Their  task  is  a  heavy  one 
and  one  which  they  almost  always  are  frank  to  con- 
fess seems  to  them  too  difficult  for  accomplishment. 
Every  mother  would  at  times  send  her  child  to  the 
state  institution  if  she  could  do  it  as  easily  as  her 
neighbor  who  has  taken  a  child  for  adoption  sends 
him  back  when  he  has  proven  himself  to  be  unworthy, 
says  a  friend  who  is  herself  a  mother.  The  business 
of  rearing  a  child,  even  of  rearing  the  best  of  children, 
is  a  hard  one,  a  responsibility  which  those  who  have 
it  recognize  themselves  as  unequal  to  cope  with. 
Being  a  parent  is  a  human  job  concerning  which 
much  knowledge  has  accumulated.  There  seems  to 
be  no  very  good  reason  why  parents  should  not  be 
trained  for  their  task  just  as  experts  in  any  line  are 
trained.  This  training  should  come  after  they  have 
children  rather  than  before,  for  it  is  only  when  the 
child  puts  in  his  appearance  that  one  really  begins 
to  know  about  children.  Every  city  should  have  a 
school  for  mothers  in  session  throughout  the  year. 
It  could  be  under  the  direction  either  of  the  board 
of  education  or  of  the  board  of  health,  since  the 
instruction  should  be  the  same  in  either  case  and  par- 
take of  the  functions  of  both  bodies.  Attendance, 
say  for  one  hour  a  week,  might  well  be  compulsory 
for  six  months  after  the  first  child  is  a  month  old. 
Having  provided  for  the  instruction  of  the  mother 
it  is  now  our  duty  to  talk  about  the  instruction  of 
the  child.  His  physical  well-being  is  of  the  first 
importance.  Health  and  strength  are  things  we 


40  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

must  be  helped  in  our  early  years  to  get  for  ourselves. 
How  many  boys  and  girls  of  your  generation  and 
mine  suffered  untold  horrors  from  toothache  and  go 
through  life  marred  and  maimed  because  their  parents 
had  no  care  to  help  them  to  preserve  their  teeth  at  a 
time  when  they  were  too  young  to  do  it  themselves  ? 
In  New  York  City  recently  there  was  a  tooth  brush 
drill  in  Central  Park  in  which  hundreds  of  public 
school  children  took  part,  whose  sole  object  was  to 
impress  the  need  for  the  care  of  their  teeth  upon  them. 
This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  stress  which  modern 
society  is  beginning  to  put  upon  these  matters. 
How  many  children  have  been  sent  to  an  early  grave 
after  a  brief  life  made  miserable  by  tuberculosis 
simply  because  they  were  not  given  breathing  lessons 
and  taught  to  use  their  lungs  properly  ?  Again  how 
many  have  suffered  from  eyestrain,  from  earache, 
from  adenoids,  and  how  many  have  been  allowed 
to  indulge  in  play  or  work  which  gave  them  defective 
hearts  to  suffer  from  as  long  as  they  lived  ?  The 
health  of  the  child  determines  the  health  of  the  adult 
to  such  an  extent  that  modern  society  finds  that  it 
must  bend  its  energies  to  constructive  efforts  in 
this  direction. 

Modern  society  feels  that  the  education  of  the 
children  is  its  supreme  constructive  activity.  Its 
laws  forbidding  child  labor,  requiring  attendance  at 
school,  training  and  carefully  supervising  teachers, 
setting  apart  funds  for  the  erection  of  elaborate 
school  buildings,  providing  an  elementary  education 
and  after  it  high  school  or  trade  instruction  for  all, 
are  some  of  the  evidences  of  its  solicitude  that  each 


THE  CHILD  IN  MODERN  SOCIETY        41 

child  may  be  guaranteed  his  right  to  instruction. 
This  has  been  called  the  century  of  the  child  and 
until  the  declaration  of  war  a  year  ago  it  seemed  to 
be  rightly  named.  It  bids  fair  now  to  go  down  in 
history  as  the  century  of  disaster.  At  any  rate  it  is 
clear  that  nothing  will  prevent  the  destruction  of 
civilization  and  the  complete  extinction  of  progress 
but  such  a  world-wide  rectification  of  human  inten- 
tions as  only  a  completer  devotion  to  education  can 
bring  about.  We  are,  I  think,  upon  the  eve  of  the 
greatest  educational  revival  that  the  world  has  yet 
seen.  It  will  be  an  education,  however,  which  is 
not  primarily  materialistic.  It  will  have  for  its  prime 
purpose  the  culture  of  human  ideals. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  the  great  system  of  agencies 
by  which  society  seeks  to  redeem  the  socially  unfit 
and  to  restore  them  to  social  fitness.  It  is  not  that 
I  have  forgotten  them  that  I  overlook  them,  but 
because  I  regard  them  all  as  remedial,  as  purely 
custodial  for  those  who  are  defective  at  birth,  or 
existing  to  undo  the  ill  results  which  defective  homes, 
defective  schools,  and  a  social  life  which  is  careless 
and  indifferent  to  its  own  welfare  produce.  The 
agencies  which  exist  to  do  repair  work  can  not  com- 
pare in  importance  with  the  agencies  which  exist 
to  make  such  repair  work  unnecessary.  It  is  upon 
the  constructive  forces  of  society  that  our  attention 
must  be  fixed.  If  one  could  bring  it  to  pass  that  the 
homes  and  the  schools  and  public  opinion  itself 
should  do  their  duty,  there  would  be  little  need  for 
juvenile  courts,  reform  schools  and  prisons  in  the 
land. 


"IS  THE  STRESS  WHICH  IS  NOW  BEING 
PUT  UPON  THE  PRACTICAL  INTER- 
FERING WITH  THE  IDEALISTIC 
TRAINING  OF  OUR  BOYS  AND 
GIRLS?"1 

A   RECENT   report   of   the   United   States    Com- 
missioner of  Education  contains  the  statement  that 

the  vocationalizing  of  education  remains  the  dominant  note  of 
the  year.  It  will  probably  continue  to  be  of  paramount  impor- 
tance for  many  years,  since  the  vocational  movement  in  its  larger 
aspects  bears  such  vital  relation  to  the  whole  problem  of  widen- 
ing democracy. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  this  movement  is  on. 
It  has  two  forms,  one  the  movement  for  definite 
vocational  or  trade  or  occupational  training,  the 
other  a  much  larger  movement  to  make  education 
of  all  sorts  definitely  and  specifically  preparatory  for 
the  life  that  the  student  will  lead  by  making  that  life 
the  basis  of  his  education  throughout.  Any  one 
who  reads  the  most  interesting  educational  paper 
which  comes  to  my  table  —  the  Educational  Supple- 
ment of  the  London  Times  —  will  not  be  long  in 
discovering  that  this  current  of  educational  change 
is  running  far  more  rapidly  in  England  just  now  than 
it  is  in  America.  That  education  must  be  modern- 
ized by  being  made  so  practical  that  it  will  fit  men 

1  An  address  before  the  Religious  Education  Association,  Boston, 
February  28,  1917. 

42 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE   IDEALISTIC"    43 

and  women  to  cope  with  the  everyday  affairs  of 
life  is  as  definite  a  conviction  over  there  as  that 
England  must  win  the  war.  If  our  nation  becomes 
involved  in  the  war,  it  will  come  out  of  it  with  many 
times  more  interest  in  practical  education  than  it 
now  has.  In  short  the  world  seems  to  have  entered 
upon  an  educational  renaissance  far  more  important 
and  more  widereaching  than  any  educational  revival 
through  which  it  has  yet  passed.  We  live  at  one 
of  those  great  times  when  old  things  are  rapidly 
passing  away  and  all  things  are  being  made  new. 

I  am  asked  to  consider  the  question  whether  or 
not  this  insurging  of  practicalizing  education  may  not 
interfere  with  the  idealistic  training  of  the  young. 
My  answer  is  unqualifiedly  no.  On  the  contrary  it 
is  certain  to  do  for  us  what  education  has  by  no 
means  done  in  the  past,  it  is  certain  to  make  idealism 
abound.  In  one  of  their  conversations  Goethe  warns 
Eckermann  that  to  attempt  to  realize  the  ideal  is 
vain  and  futile,  for  not  that  but  to  idealize  the  real 
is  our  problem.  Now  this  whole  vocationalizing 
effort  has  no  other  purpose  than  to  help  folks  to 
idealize  the  real.  I  used  to  be  a  teacher  in  a  mission- 
ary school  for  the  children  of  ex-slaves  in  the  midst  of 
the  black  belt  in  the  south.  Ours  was  a  school  with 
a  strong  preference  for  the  classical  type  of  studies ; 
there  were  newer  studies  there,  but  they  were  not 
received  gladly.  We  taught  book  work  of  the  pre- 
vailing kind,  great  quantities  of  reading,  writing  and 
spelling  without  any  particular  effort  to  see  to  it  that 
our  students  read  what  they  should  have  read,  or 
wrote  what  they  should  have  written  or  spelled  the 


44  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

words  they  should  have  spelled.  In  short  we  taught 
reading  for  the  sake  of  reading,  writing  for  the  sake 
of  writing  and  spelling  for  the  sake  of  spelling  without 
for  a  moment  doubting  that  these  abstract  and  un- 
related activities  would  somehow  make  themselves 
into  tools  and  get  themselves  used  by  the  poor  little 
befuddled,  deceived,  and  pompous  graduates  of  our 
school.  And  after  we  had  taught  them  reading  and 
its  fellow  studies  without  teaching  them  how  to  use 
them  we  gave  them  copious  instruction  in  English 
grammar  which  they  could  not  understand,  United 
States  history  which  was  so  abstract  and  unrelated  to 
anything  they  had  seen  or  had  any  part  in,  that  most 
of  it  was  meaningless  to  them,  and  the  hardihood 
of  the  few  who  were  not  utterly  discouraged  by  this 
course  of  study  we  next  tried  to  break  by  setting 
them  to  wrestle  with  the  Latin  grammar.  Two  or 
three  who  had  persevered  in  that  course  as  far  as 
Cicero's  orations  we  felt  had  not  had  enough  grammar 
yet,  so  we  set  them  to  memorizing  the  Greek  grammar. 
The  money  to  provide  that  education  was  collected 
dollar  by  dollar,  ten-cent  piece  by  ten-cent  piece,  and 
almost  penny  by  penny  from  hard-working,  pious 
folks  whose  hearts  bled  for  the  suffering  poor,  and  who, 
as  they  listened  with  rapt  attention  to  the  persuasive 
missionary's  account  of  how  education  was  being 
brought  to  an  oppressed  race,  taxed  themselves 
heavily,  shared  their  living  and  frequently  gave  more 
than  they  could  afford,  that  those  poor  colored 
children  might  have  the  unutterable  blessing  of  an 
education;  and  we  teachers  used  that  money  and 
took  years  of  the  time  of  those  young  people  and 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC"    45 

sent  them  out  into  the  world  knowing  nothing,  able 
to  teach  chemical  definitions  and  formulas  to  others, 
but  wholly  unable  to  use  chemistry  in  farming,  able 
to  classify  flowers  but  not  to  grow  crops,  able  to  pass  a 
verbal  examination  on  a  book  on  physics  but  quite 
unskilled  in  working  with  machines.  Some  of  them 
left  with  ideals  such  as  that  they  should  be  clean, 
should  not  steal,  should  be  men  and  women  of  their 
word,  should  work  hard  and  be  honest,  but  these 
ideals  did  not  come  from  what  they  studied.  They 
came  from  association  with  devoted  people  — 
devoted  even  though  they  were  teaching  the  wrong 
studies  and  teaching  them  in  the  worst  of  ways. 
We  had  transplanted  New  England  education  into 
the  south.  It  did  not  fit  there,  and  though  the  re- 
sources and  the  energy  of  the  best  teachers  that  the 
society  could  assemble  were  behind  it,  it  was  a  failure, 
and  because  it  gave  those  young  people  a  false 
knowledge  and  false  notions  of  then*  own  importance 
as  possessors  of  a  knowledge  which  they  did  not 
have  it  was  harmful  to  them. 

A  few  miles  away  in  another  state  a  colored  teacher 
who  knew  his  people  and  their  needs  far  better  than 
we  did,  with  an  intuition  amounting  to  genius,  dis- 
cerned a  truth  that  we  must  all  in  time  discern  and 
created  a  school  to  teach  colored  men  and  women  to 
work.  He  taught  them  useful  trades  and  forms  of 
handiwork,  and  as  essential  parts  of  these  skilled 
industries  he  taught  them  how  to  use  their  ability  to 
read,  to  write  and  spell  and  employ  calculation.  He 
set  before  them  the  ideal  of  service.  Learning,  he 
said,  which  does  not  help  you  to  produce  something 


46 

which  men  want,  to  act  and  live  in  such  a  way  that 
men  seeing  your  good  works  will  value  and  honor 
you,  is  empty  learning.  You  are  to  be  citizens  in  a 
great  free  cooperative  country.  Your  first  duty  is 
to  learn  to  do  your  part  and  if  you  do  that,  all  other 
things  will  be  added  unto  you.  That  educational 
reformer,  as  everybody  knows,  was  Booker  Wash- 
ington (may  his  name  be  praised).  He  lived  to 
transform  the  education  of  the  colored  race.  In  place 
of  an  abstract  and  formal  schooling  he  gave  them  a 
genuine  training  for  the  work  they  are  to  do.  In 
place  of  an  abstract  and  conventional  morality  and 
religion  he  taught  them  a  concrete  morality  and 
religion.  In  place  of  unrelated  ideas  he  gave  them 
purposes  and  taught  them  to  use  ideas  in  attaining 
them.  In  place  of  offering  them  ideals  from  books 
and  the  aspirations  of  other  men  he  taught  them  to 
develop  their  own  ideals  and  to  aspire  themselves. 
Emerson  warns  us  to  look  out  when  God  looses  a 
thinker  in  this  world.  The  work  which  this  humble 
educational  thinker  did  is  bound  to  transform  almost 
everything  which  schools  and  teachers  do.  It 
showed  conclusively  that  the  New  England  type  of 
education  must  give  way  to  a  better  kind  of  education 
in  the  south.  It  is  now  showing  that  the  New  Eng- 
land type  of  education  must  give  way  to  a  better 
kind  in  New  England  and  in  the  whole  United  States. 
There  are  few  happenings  in  the  history  of  men  more 
unexpected  and  astonishing  than  that  the  colored 
race  within  a  single  generation  after  it  was  freed 
from  slavery  should  have  taught  the  white  race  how 
to  train  up  its  children.  A  critic  of  education  had  to 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC"    47 

grow  up  outside  the  treadmill  of  education  in  order 
to  put  the  proper  value  upon  what  is  being  done  and 
to  point  out  ways  of  doing  better.  The  most  striking 
experience  I  have  yet  had  in  this  incarnation  was  to 
meet  and  talk  with  the  Buddhist  monk  Dharmapala 
and  to  hear  from  his  own  lips  that  he  had  come  to 
America  in  order  to  take  back  to  India  a  man  suffi- 
ciently familiar  with  the  work  of  Booker  Washington 
to  establish  a  school  similar  to  that  of  Tuskegee  in 
the  ancient  city  of  Benares.  That  school  was  started. 
Surely  nothing  more  dramatic  has  anywhere  hap- 
pened than  that  the  best  and  most  saintly  represent- 
ative of  the  oldest  of  all  civilizations  should  seek  the 
help  of  the  best  of  the  last  of  all  the  races  to  become 
civilized,  in  the  education  of  his  people. 

My  own  difficulty  is  not  at  all  due  to  concern  lest 
the  young  may  lack  an  idealistic  training  if  they  are 
instructed  in  practical  studies  and  given  what  is  called 
a  vocational  education.  My  difficulty  is  that  I  can 
not  comprehend  how  any  other  kind  of  education 
ever  came  to  be  given.  How  did  it  happen  that 
anything  but  that  which  prepares  men  for  their  work 
ever  came  to  be  regarded  as  education?  Must  not 
all  education  be  vocational?  If  we  follow  Aris- 
totle's advice  to  study  things  in  their  origin,  we  get 
great  illumination  upon  this  problem.  Paleolithic 
man,  if  he  taught  his  child  anything,  must  have 
taught  him  to  do  the  things  which  he  had  found 
indispensable,  to  chip  stone  implements  and  to  hunt 
with  their  aid.  Whatever  education  there  was  in 
that  early  time  was  clearly  vocational.  And  voca- 
tional it  remained  at  Sparta,  and  at  Athens  too,  for 


48  WHAT  THE   WAR  TEACHES 

reading  and  music  and  gymnastics  were  the  means  to 
that  democratic  citizenship  which  the  ability  to  read 
Solon's  laws,  to  understand  the  Homeric  morality 
and  to  defend  the  state  against  the  Persians  made 
possible.  When  the  Sophists  introduced  higher 
education  into  Greece  they  came  offering  to  teach 
the  art  of  life  or  how  to  succeed  in  public  and  private 
affairs.  One  of  them,  Gorgias,  believed  and  taught 
that  but  one  thing  was  needful.  The  person  who 
wanted  to  be  a  physician  he  urged  to  learn  how  to 
make  speeches  rather  than  to  study  medicine,  and 
the  man  who  wanted  to  become  a  general  he  said 
should  study  speech-making  rather  than  military 
tactics.  But  Socrates  corrected  that  error  and  spent 
his  life  in  telling  the  Athenians  that  they  must  learn 
civic  and  manly  virtue  in  just  the  same  way  that  they 
learned  to  make  shoes  or  pilot  ships.  Plato  in  a 
famous  passage  [Laws  643-4]  tells  us  what  his  notion 
of  education  was. 

No  better  statement  of  what  education  is  has  ever 
been  made  than  his.  It  is  learning  beforehand  the 
knowledge  which  one  will  require  for  his  art.  The 
teachers  should  direct  the  children's  inclinations  and 
interests  to  their  final  aim  in  life,  and  of  all  these 
aims  that  of  being  a  good  citizen  and  a  good  man  is 
the  greatest.  That,  too,  according  to  Plato,  is  an 
art  in  which  one  is  to  gain  skill  in  distinguishing 
good  from  evil,  true  from  false,  noble  from  ignoble  by 
what  he  does,  just  as  the  carpenter  learns  his  trade 
or  the  farmer  his.  Cleanthes  tells  us  that  Socrates 
"cursed  as  impious  him  who  first  separated  the  just 
from  the  useful."  That  knowledge  is  virtue  was  the 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC'     49 

one  doctrine  that  he  taught.  To  him  all  knowledge 
was  practical,  and  as  I  read  him  all  knowledge 
was  practical  to  Plato  also.  It  was  Aristotle  who 
introduced  confusion,  first,  by  distinguishing  a 
liberal  education  from  an  education  fit  for  slaves,  a 
distinction  which  the  world  mistakenly  tries  to 
maintain  after  slavery  has  gone  out  of  existence, 
and,  secondly,  by  separating  theoretical  knowledge 
from  practical  knowledge  —  theoretical  knowledge, 
as  he  put  it,  being  knowing  just  for  the  sake  of  know- 
ing, knowing  wholly  unmixed  with  volition,  and 
practical  knowledge  knowing  for  the  sake  of  doing. 
Is  there  any  such  thing  as  knowing  unmixed  with 
volition  ?  At  any  rate  the  lecture  notes  of  Aristotle's 
instruction  show  us  that  he  gave  great  attention  to 
practical  knowledge.  Roman  education  was  prac- 
tical throughout,  and  education  in  the  dark  ages  and 
the  lesser  renaissance,  and  the  greater  renaissance 
was  throughout  a  specific  preparation  for  what  those 
who  studied  intended  to  do.  Reformation  education 
was  intensely  practical,  specifically  preparatory  for 
the  chief  work  of  man.  When  the  learning  of  the 
past  had  been  translated  into  everyday  speech  it 
seemed  to  a  good  many  thinkers  of  that  day  that 
the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  should  be  given  up  and 
that  the  real  things  about  men  should  be  studied 
instead  of  the  languages.  The  realists  had  the  best 
of  the  argument,  until  about  1750  certain  German 
teachers  of  the  old  subjects  began  to  defend  their 
retention  in  the  schools  by  declaring  that  though 
Latin  and  Greek  are  no  longer  practical,  since  what 
we  study  in  them  is  no  longer  useful,  they  must  be 


50  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

pursued  because  they  develop  the  powers  or  faculties 
of  the  mind.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  formal  or  general 
education  came  into  being  and  for  a  long  time  wholly 
supplanted  specific  education,  which  was  the  only  kind 
of  education  which  had  existed  for  two  thousand  years. 
The  man  who  objects  to  the  onrushing  present-day 
movement  to  make  education  specific  throughout 
and  definitely  preparatory  to  the  work  of  life  does 
so  for  one,  or  perhaps  more  than  one,  of  three  reasons. 
He  either  follows  Aristotle  as  against  Socrates  and 
Plato  and  declares  that  knowledge  exists  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge,  science  for  the  sake  of  science  and 
learning  for  the  sake  of  learning,  or  he  holds  to  the 
doctrine  of  formal  discipline  and  believes  that  there 
are  some  studies  which  improve  the  mind  and  perfect 
its  powers  and  which  are  therefore  indispensable 
while  we  are  getting  an  education,  though  we  can 
not  after  we  leave  school  use  them.  Or  he  fears 
that  making  education  definitely  practical  will  result 
in  such  a  narrowing  of  the  course  of  study  which  each 
student  pursues  that  nothing  but  one-sided  training 
will  result  and  therefore  prefers  the  old  confused, 
aimless  and  unjustifiable  education  solely  because  he 
believes  it  requires  the  student  to  study  more  different 
subjects  than  the  proposed  arrangement  will  require. 
There  is  a  fourth  reason  which  some  men  give  for 
their  preference  for  the  old  studies.  It  is  that  they 
give  the  student  hard  work  and  lots  of  it,  but  this 
justification  of  them  overlooks  the  fact  that  the  new 
studies  provide  plenty  of  work  too,  and  have  the 
advantage  of  permitting  the  student  to  understand 
why  he  does  it. 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC'     51 

The  person  who  objects  to  practical  studies  be- 
cause he  believes  in  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  is  an 
intellectualist  and  must  reckon  with  the  pragmatists. 
His  philosophy  of  learning  seems  to  be  unsound. 
There  is  no  warrant  in  psychology  or  in  history  for 
such  a  position,  and  the  phrases  he  uses  seem  to  have 
no  meaning.  Literature,  science,  philosophy  are  all 
things  which  man  has  created.  It  is  idolatry  for 
the  creator  to  worship  the  things  which  he  has  made. 
They  are  all  tools  or  instruments  which  the  young 
must  learn  to  use  and  work  with,  but  not  ends  in 
themselves.  It  is  as  sensible  to  say  that  hammers 
exist  for  the  sake  of  hammers  as  to  say  that  literature 
exists  for  the  sake  of  literature,  mathematics  for  the 
sake  of  mathematics  and  science  for  the  sake  of 
science.  They  all  exist  for  man's  sake  and  for  no 
other  reason.  There  is  a  very  great  advantage  in 
giving  up  spelling  for  the  sake  of  spelling,  geography 
for  the  sake  of  geography  and  literature  for  the  sake  of 
literature.  Just  as  soon  as  we  take  the  view  that  we 
learn  to  spell  in  order  that  we  may  spell  the  words 
which  we  shall  need  to  spell  when  we  write,  our  task 
becomes  so  definite  and  manageable  that  we  can 
accomplish  it,  while  so  long  as  we  learn  to  spell 
words  just  because  words  are  spelled,  there  are  so 
many  of  them  which  are  spelled  that  we  do  not 
learn  to  spell  them  with  any  degree  of  success.  The 
same  limiting  and  defining  of  our  task  takes  place 
in  all  the  other  subjects. 

The  man  who  believes  that  the  business  of  edu- 
cation is  to  perfect  or  at  least  improve  the  faculties 
of  the  mind  will  have  to  reckon  with  the  psycholo- 


52  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

gists,  who  declare  with  one  accord  that  there  are  no 
faculties  of  the  mind.  He  will  have  to  make  his 
peace  with  such  men  as  Professor  Spearman,  who 
declares  that  "the  great  assumption  upon  which 
education  has  rested  for  so  many  centuries  is  now  at 
last  rendered  amenable  to  experimental  corrobora- 
tion  —  and  it  proves  to  be  false ! "  The  more  he 
studies  this  intricate  subject  the  more  convinced  he 
will  become  that  a  philosophy  of  education  can  not 
be  made  out  of  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline,  that 
all  education  is  definitely  and  thoroughly  specific.  We 
can  not  longer  take  the  years  of  children  in  order  to 
train  them  in  accordance  with  a  theory  which  has  been 
proved  to  be  unsound.  All  life  is  a  doing  and  all  real 
education  is  learning  to  do  certain  things  which  neither 
the  student  nor  his  fellows  can  get  along  without. 

If  any  person  thinks  that  specific  or  practical 
education  can  not  be  of  as  many  kinds  as  are  neces- 
sary to  prepare  the  student  to  do  all  the  several  sorts 
of  acts  which  he  as  a  moral  person,  good  citizen, 
member  of  a  family,  social  and  industrial  producer, 
and  trustful  child  of  God  must  do  he  must  have 
reckoned  but  indifferently  with  the  dictum  of  the 
psychologist  that  "it  is  impossible  to  keep  up  an 
interest  unless  it  be  specific,"  and  that  the  specific 
interests  which  unite  us  to  our  fellows  may  each  and 
all  of  them  be  fostered  and  trained  in  the  school. 
The  fact  which  we  must  reckon  with  is  that  general 
education  of  the  faculty-developing  sort  does  not 
foster  but  depresses  them.  One  of  my  colleagues, 
whose  interest  in  the  mental  life  of  students  is 
exceptionally  acute,  tells  me  that  he  is  convinced 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC'      53 

that  our  present  requirement  that  certain  studies 
must  be  pursued  for  reasons  which  the  student  can 
not  comprehend  (nor  can  we  ourselves,  for  that 
matter),  and  which  the  student  spends  his  years 
upon  in  an  aimless  fashion,  leaves  him  mentally 
disorganized  and  ambitionless  at  the  end  of  his 
course.  His  idealism  is  gone,  he  distrusts  his  own 
powers  and  he  faces  the  world  in  a  dejected  and 
despairing  condition.  The  school  and  college,  in- 
stead of  fitting  him  to  take  part  in  the  battle  of  life, 
have  unfitted  him  to  do  that.  The  conclusion  is 
clear :  studies  must  take  the  life  form.  Knowledge 
for  the  sake  of  knowledge,  which  is  an  empty  claim, 
must  be  given  up.  Education  must  be  vocationalized 
throughout  and  students  must  be  given  opportunity 
to  acquire  the  knowledge  which  they  will  require 
for  their  art.  That  art  is  broad  but  not  vague. 
If  it  prepares  them  for  it  all  education  becomes  real 
and  vocational,  for  the  life  of  the  religious  person, 
of  the  citizen  in  a  democracy,  of  the  member  of  a 
family  and  a  social  economic  producer  is  the  life 
unto  which  they  are  called. 

I  have  a  quarrel  with  the  folks  who  are  trying  to 
give  the  good  old  word  vocation  the  exclusive 
connotation  of  a  money-earning  occupation.  One  is 
called  to  many  more  things  than  to  produce  goods 
for  sale.  His  education  at  all  stages  must,  I  think,  be 
broader  than  a  mere  effort  to  acquire  saleable  skill, 
though  at  certain  stages  the  development  of  saleable 
skill  in  a  particular  trade  or  occupation  should  be  the 
chief  element  in  his  course,  but  not  even  then  the 
only  element. 


54  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

We  may  take  it  for  granted  that  the  man  who  has 
not  learned  to  do  anything  has  not  found  and  is  not 
finding  his  place  in  society.  He  is  not  able  to  give 
himself  a  value  in  the  social  equation.  His  spirit 
must  be  that  of  the  non-contributing  member,  of  the 
outsider,  the  wanderer,  the  vagabond.  You  can  not 
make  a  society  out  of  such  men,  neither  can  you 
socialize  them.  To  teach  the  young  that  each  one 
of  them  has  a  place  and  a  work  to  do  and  that  his 
main  business  in  youth  is  to  find  out  what  that  work 
is  and  to  fit  himself  most  diligently  to  do  it  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  whole  purpose  of  education.  Unless 
every  part  of  it  is  going  to  make  a  difference  in  our 
after  lives  we  had  better  omit  it.  The  food-pro- 
ducing or  life-maintaining  occupation  is  the  core  of 
our  activity ;  it  is  only  a  part  of  our  activity  —  but 
it  is  and  should  be  the  organizing  part.  An  edu- 
cation built  upon  the  vocational  motive  broadly 
enough  construed  to  enable  the  young  person  to 
acquire  the  elements  of  his  entire  work  in  life  would, 
I  think,  be  far  more  truly  cultural  than  the  formal 
education  to  which  we  misapply  that  adjective. 

And  I  am  going  to  claim  for  it  that  it  will  develop 
a  more  genuine  sense  of  religion  too.  After  all,  it  is 
working  with  the  resisting  material  of  life  that  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  the  great  fact  of  God's  existence 
and  of  the  human  law  of  justice  and  the  great  need 
for  faith  and  loving-kindness.  Religion  is  just  choos- 
ing the  kind  of  a  universe  that  we  are  forced  to  insist 
that  this  must  be.  Books  may  help  us  to  decide 
what  kind  of  a  universe  we  must  think  this  is,  but 
the  lives  that  we  live  tell  us  far  more  about  that  than 


"THE  PRACTICAL  AND  THE  IDEALISTIC"     55 

even  the  best  of  books  do.  The  man  whose  life  is 
one  untroubled  joy  may  read  his  Bible,  but  its  words 
must  seem  like  an  ancient  tale  to  him.  If  his  will 
throughout  has  its  own  way,  he  will  not  come  to  a 
realizing  sense  that  he  is  a  child  of  higher  powers. 
He  will  worship  himself  and  be  his  own  disciple. 
Phrase  it  as  we  will  it  is  chiefly  this  self -worship  that 
keeps  men  away  from  God.  Whenever  they  are 
caught  up  in  the  struggle  of  mighty  forces  which  will 
not  obey  them,  but  which  they  must  take  note  of 
and  obey,  they  become  humbled  and  dependent. 
It  is  adversity  rather  than  prosperity  that  purges 
the  mind.  In  times  of  great  public  calamity  alone 
do  men  see  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  for 
then  only  do  they  become  genuinely  other-minded, 
feeling  their  own  helplessness  and  their  complete 
dependence  upon  a  power  which  is  not  themselves. 
Why  do  we  all  choose  justice  then  rather  than  life 
and  the  way  of  sacrifice  rather  than  peace  without 
effort?  Because  we  feel  it  is  the  will  of  God. 

Now  the  education  which  introduces  us  early  to 
the  realities  with  which  men  have  struggled  ever 
since  the  world  began  is  far  more  certain  than  the 
education  which  comes  from  books  to  make  us 
aware  of  ourselves  and  the  forces  with  which  we 
must  reckon.  He  who  reads  a  book  about  agri- 
culture will  learn  something  about  the  recurring 
seasons  and  may  gather  from  it  that  they  are  a 
beneficent  arrangement  to  enable  men  to  live,  but 
he  who  tills  a  field  will  know  the  recurring  seasons 
as  a  fact  which  he  must  reckon  with  or  starve.  He 
who  studies  physics  for  the  culture  of  his  mind  will 


56  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

learn  something  about  the  law  of  gravitation,  but  he 
who  builds  a  wall  or  constructs  a  house  will  have  a 
realizing  sense  of  it.  It  is  what  we  do  that  teaches 
us.  It  is  easy  to  get  on  with  one's  fellows  in  the 
school,  but  hi  the  shop  team  work  and  the  ignominy 
of  shirking  are  realities.  Our  little  undertakings,  if 
they  be  real,  teach  us  the  importance  of  the  virtues. 
Our  great  undertakings  in  which  we  stand  together 
facing  defeat  and  death  teach  us  perhaps  for  the 
first  time  in  our  lives  that  all  that  we  can  do  is  of 
but  slight  avail,  that  unless  right  is  on  our  side  and 
God  fight  for  us  our  struggle  is  in  vain.  It  is  pur- 
pose, laying  hold  of  We  in  race-old  human  ways, 
rather  than  indifferent  and  aimless  seeings  and  hear- 
ings, that  we  must  depend  upon  to  make  men  really 
conscious  of  the  facts  and  significance  of  religion  and 
morals.  For  a  purposeful  wrestling  with  conditions 
has  a  sobering  poignancy  about  it  as  superior  to  a 
mere  verbal  taking  account  of  them  as  first-hand 
evidence  is  superior  to  hearsay  evidence.  It  is  in 
sweeping  rooms,  in  herding  sheep,  in  plowing  fields, 
in  driving  engines,  in  tending  machines,  in  fighting 
battles,  that  one  must  learn  to  be  a  child  of  God,  or 
his  religion  will  be  as  little  a  workaday  affair  as  his 
Sunday  clothes  are. 


IT  was  in  a  large  city.  We  came  by  invitation  of 
our  host,  who  all  his  life  has  been  singularly  devoted 
to  making  this  world  a  better  place  for  folks  to  live 
in.  His  fellow  stockholders  have  elected  him  to  the 
directorate  of  one  of  the  largest  corporations  in  which 
he  owns  stock.  I  mean  the  public  schools ;  he  is  an 
active  not  merely  a  voting  director.  My  friend,  the 
director  of  studies,  and  I  were  the  first  to  arrive. 
"Tell  us  what  it  is  all  about,"  we  said,  as  soon  as  we 
had  exchanged  greetings.  "It  came  to  pass  in  this 

way,"  he  said.     " My  friend  G was,  as  you  know, 

president  of  the  board  of  education  for  some  years. 
Three  years  ago  he  retired  from  that  body.  I  used 
to  tell  him  that  our  most  important  duty  was  to 
make  over  the  course  of  study.  But  we  were  so 
busy  about  vocational  schools  and  parents'  com- 
plaints and  other  small  matters  that  we  never  got  to 
that,  though  I  have  long  believed  that  since  it  is 
the  program  of  work  which  both  teachers  and  stu- 
dents are  required  to  follow  and  the  rope  which  ties 
the  feet  of  every  one  of  us,  it  is  the  thing  of  things 

to  look  out  for  and  keep  in  order.     G never  saw 

it  that  way  when  he  was  president  of  the  board; 
but  now  he  has  a  daughter  in  one  of  the  schools,  and 
what  she  is  forced  to  do  there  is  more  than  he  can 
bear.  The  number  of  roods  in  an  acre  and  of  fur- 

57 


58  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

longs  in  a  mile  seems  to  have  been  the  straw  which 
broke  his  self-control.  He  says  it  is  stuff,  and  no 
child  should  be  required  to  learn  it.  He  came  to  me 
a  week  ago  and  asked  me  to  bring  together  a  half 
dozen  men  to  do  something  about  it.  That's  why 
you're  here.  He  is  bringing  a  business  man,  Mr. 

Z ,  with  him,  and  I  have  asked  two  members  of 

the  state  board  of  education  and  the  superintendent 
of  schools  to  come  in." 

In  a  little  while  the  company  gathered,  and  our 
host  turned  to  the  ex-president  of  the  board  of 
education  and  asked  him  to  tell  us  how  it  looked 
"to  a  former  school  officer  who  had  been  converted 
from  his  official  indifference  by  being  a  parent  with 
his  own  child  in  school."  He  spoke  with  marked 
seriousness.  "The  great  problem  of  life,"  he  said, 
"is  not  death;  the  great  problem  is  children. 
Nature  sees  to  it  that  at  the  last  we  die  peacefully, 
but  as  long  as  we  live  our  children  are  a  source  of 
unceasing  anxiety  to  us.  First  the  baby  is  not 
strong,  and  we  go  about  with  the  horrible  feeling 
in  the  back  of  our  minds  that  in  spite  of  all  we  can 
do,  he  may  die.  When  he  is  safely  over  that,  we  be- 
gin to  wonder  what  sort  of  stuff  is  in  him,  and  set  out 
to  teach  him  to  be  clean  and  mannerly,  to  show  spunk 
by  not  crying,  and  not  to  pull  the  house  down,  or 
set  fire  to  it,  or  run  in  front  of  automobiles.  If  he 
goes  to  a  neighbor's  to  play  with  her  children  and 
brings  something  back  which  does  not  belong  to 
him,  we  inquire  how  he  got  it.  He  says  it  was 
given  to  him.  Like  all  mortals  his  desire  to  accumu- 
late is  very  strong,  and  we  wonder  if  what  he  says  is 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  59 

so.  We  take  him  by  the  hand  and  lead  him  into 
the  neighbor's  presence.  Alas,  there  is  no  future  for 
us  if  he  goes  on  in  this  way.  Our  beloved  child 
whom  we  have  cared  for  so  tenderly  is  a  thief! 
Horrid  word !  Our  confidence  is  gone.  The  honor 
and  good  name  which  we  have  striven  to  build  up  all 
these  years  are  now  threatened.  Why  does  he  insist 
on  taking  so  lightly  that  which  is  the  very  object 
of  our  existence?  We  forget  for  the  moment  that 
he  is  not  set  up  to  distinguish  mine  and  thine  when 
he  comes  here.  They  are  not  ideas  that  he  is  born 
with.  Like  every  one  who  ever  lived,  he  must  learn 
to  think  them  for  himself.  We  reason  with  him,  we 
talk  about  the  important  things  to  him.  Alas, 
the  same  is  true  of  everything.  Why  does  he  sound 
words  so  imperfectly?  WThy  does  he  make  such 
queer  errors  in  speaking?  He  begins  to  count,  and 
I  give  him  little  sums  to  add  or  to  subtract.  Two 
and  six,  I  say.  Four  he  answers.  Two  from  six; 
eight  he  instantly  replies.  WTiy  does  he  have  such 
strange  notions  of  things?  If  there  were  but  some 
way  of  saying  magic  words  over  him,  or  if  he  might 
sink  into  a  Rip  Van  Winkle  sleep  and  waken  from 
it  a  man,  I  should  be  satisfied,  if  he  were  only  the 
kind  of  a  man  I  want  him  to  be. 

"We  look  forward  eagerly  to  the  child's  going  to 
school.  Then,  we  say,  the  major  part  of  our  troubles 
will  be  over.  He  shall  have  the  expert  care  of  wise 
and  loving  teachers.  They  will  set  his  feet  in  the 
way  he  should  go.  In  them  we  shall  have  coadjutors 
of  the  spirit  who  will  supply  wisdom  .for  our  lack  of  it 
and  will  mightily  supplement  our  fumbling  efforts 


60  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

by  the  sureness  of  their  intelligence.  His  first  days 
in  the  kindergarten  are  a  heavenly  delight.  The 
things  he  brings  home  which  he  himself  has  made 
are  positively  wonderful.  His  joy  in  his  school 
knows  no  bounds.  When  he  goes  to  the  first  grade, 
almost  the  same  thing  is  true.  I  do  not  know  just 
where  the  trouble  begins,  but  somewhere  in  the 
second  or  third  grade  unmistakable  shadows  of  the 
evening  begin  to  steal  over  his  spirit.  He  no  longer 
runs  to  school  with  his  former  alacrity,  he  is  not  the 
same  buoyant  self  when  he  comes  home  at  night,  he 
no  longer  speaks  of  his  teacher  with  his  old-time 
enthusiasm,  and  he  frequently  complains,  'I  can  not 
get  my  lessons,  I  don't  know  what  this  old  arith- 
metic is  about.'  My  little  girl  is  farther  on  than 
that.  She  is  required  to  learn  how  many  roods 
make  an  acre,  and  how  many  cubic  inches  a  gallon. 
She  is  worrying  over  bank  discount,  longitude  and 
time,  compound  proportion,  aliquot  parts,  and 
cube  root.  The  problems  she  brings  home  make 
her  parents  shiver.  They  are  like  this :  Divide 
639^  by  |i.  If  the  principal  is  $567,  the  time  11 
months  and  13  days,  and  the  amount  $763,  what  is 
the  rate?  What  is  the  cube  root  of  1,797,643? 
Find  14f  %  of  25  acres. 

"These  are,  to  be  sure,  extreme  instances.  But 
what  has  she  to  do  with  extreme  instances  ?  There 
is  another  thing  that  I  object  to.  When  she  studied 
addition,  the  sums  she  was  required  to  add  were 
composed  of  numbers  of  six  and  seven  figures  more 
often  than  not.  You  would  have  concluded  from 
the  size  of  the  computations  which  she  practiced 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  61 

upon  that  her  teachers  were  confident  she  would 
become  a  millionaire  and  henceforth  have  nothing 
to  do  with  calculations  that  involved  less  than  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Yet  I  find  that  she 
cannot  multiply  8  by  7,  nor  subtract  9  from  13, 
nor  divide  64  by  9.  Ordinary  everyday  work  she 
simply  does  not  have  a  chance  to  do,  and  such  prob- 
lems as  meet  one  in  the  street,  in  the  shop,  and  the 
home  are  neglected  in  order  that  puzzles  may  be 
solved  and  absurdly  grandiose  computations  made." 

"You  are  repeating  an  ancient  objection,"  said  the 
superintendent. 

"But  I  have  not  done  yet,"  said  the  ex-president 
of  the  board  of  education,  who  had  been  promoted 
to  the  role  of  a  parent,  "indeed  I  have  hardly  begun. 
Offense  against  common  sense  in  arithmetic  is  nothing 
to  what  it  is  in  grammar.  I  lie  awake  at  night  and 
weep  over  what  my  daughter  is  required  to  study  in 
that  subject.  It  is  the  most  metaphysical  and  un- 
certain of  all  the  creations  of  the  human  intellect. 
The  world  reached  its  highest  known  stage  of 
intelligence  before  grammar  was  even  invented, 
much  less  studied.  I  have  had  some  curiosity  to 
find  out  where  and  how  so  great  a  blight  upon  young 
life  first  came  into  being  and  why  it  ever  became  a 
school  study,  and  I  find  that  the  Greeks  knew  it  not, 
that  their  triumphant  literature  and  their  matchless 
oratory  came  to  flower  before  grammar  was  dreamed 
of.  That  it  was  not  in  any  sense  one  of  the  great 
arts  which  they  wrought  out  and  with  which  they 
armed  the  human  race.  That  after  Greece  had 
declined,  a  barbarous  Macedonian  made  himself  the 


62  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

owner  of  all  Egypt,  and  in  order  to  surround  himself 
with  the  most  spectacular  form  of  ostentation  of 
which  his  vain  mind  could  conceive,  he  set  to  collect- 
ing not  only  all  the  rare  and  precious  objects  and 
books  and  manuscripts  there  were  in  the  world,  but  he 
capped  it  all  by  making  a  collection  of  the  living  men 
of  the  world  who  had  any  reputation  anywhere  for 
knowing  and  thinking ;  taking  them  from  their  homes 
where  they  had  some  relation  to  the  daily  necessities 
of  human  beings,  and  had  really  been  of  some  use, 
he  shut  them  up  for  life  in  one  of  his  palaces  at 
Alexandria,  which  the  folks  there  were  in  the  habit 
of  calling  'the  hencoop  of  the  muses';  and  out  of 
sheer  desperation,  since  they  could  do  nothing  better 
to  amuse  themselves,  they  counted  the  words  in  the 
books  which  real  men  had  written,  and  prepared 
tables  of  the  forms  and  endings  which  the  users  of 
words  employed.  The  lifeless  dregs  of  books  which 
their  distilling  left  we  now  call  grammar,  and  study 
instead  of  books  and  even  speech  itself.  In  their 
lowest  depth  of  indifference  to  the  moving,  pulsing  life 
of  man  not  even  the  Alexandrians  sank  so  low  as  that. 
"Pardon  my  vehemence,  but  it  is  wicked  when  our 
children  ask  us  for  bread  to  give  them  this  stone. 
To  make  them  study  grammar  seems  to  me  like 
feeding  them  on  the  wrapping-paper  in  which  our 
food  is  brought  from  the  grocery.  Is  our  language 
merely  a  thing  to  be  known  about  or  a  thing  to  be 
known?  I  would  be  foolish  to  try  to  learn  to  play 
golf  by  committing  a  book  about  it.  You  say  our 
children  should  speak  correctly.  Are  we  trying  to 
make  them  into  precisians?  Without  giving  them 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  63 

rich  opportunities  to  make  mistakes  and  teaching 
them  that  utterance  and  being  understood  are  the 
great  things,  are  we  going  to  make  them  into  wor- 
shipers of  words,  who,  having  been  told  that  they 
are  stern  things,  are  henceforth  so  afraid  of  them  that 
they  wrap  their  thoughts  in  a  napkin  of  fearsomeness 
and  refrain  from  uttering  them? 

"But  this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  They  study  defi- 
nitions which  are  not  in  the  slightest  degree  com- 
prehensible to  them.  I  am  a  lawyer,  as  you  know, 
and  have  spent  my  life  in  learning  to  make  subtle 
distinctions,  but  the  distinctions  of  the  English 
grammar  which  my  child  is  required  to  learn  to 
make  in  her  lessons  are  beyond  my  power.  I  have 
asked  her  to  find  out  from  her  teacher  if  she  under- 
stands what  they  are  in  certain  cases,  and  I  find  that 
the  teacher  is  no  better  off  with  them  than  we.  But 
the  chief  objection  that  I  have  to  it  is  that  the  most 
that  one  learns  when  he  studies  English  grammar  is 
not  true." 

"Yes,"  said  our  host,  "I  know  what  you  mean. 
I  was  three  years  in  the  law  school,  and  I  spent  two 
of  them  in  learning  what  a  contract  is,  namely, 
what  is  an  offer  and  what  is  an  acceptance.  That  is 
a  simple  distinction  compared  to  the  metaphysical 
problems  with  which  children  in  the  elementary 
schools  are  expected  to  wrestle  successfully  when 
they  study  English  grammar." 

"If  you  want,"  said  I,  "an  instance  of  the  essential 
difficulty  of  grammar,  take  nouns.  We  are  taught 
that  nouns  are  names,  but  that  does  not  help  much, 
for  every  word,  every  part  of  speech,  is  a  name." 


64  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

"I  was  taught,"  said  Mr.  X ,  "that  a  noun  is 

the  name  of  an  object." 

"It  is  not  that,"  said  I. 

"Truth,  for  example,"  said  the  superintendent. 

"Truth,"  said  I,  "is  not  an  object,  it  is  a  class 
or  kind.  Is  it  a  quality  or  aspect  of  things  or  a 
quality  or  aspect  of  our  relation  to  things?" 

"I  think,"  said  our  host,  "that  we  should  hear 

from  Mr.  R what  is  being  done  at  present  to 

determine  how  successfully  the  children  are  working 
in  the  schools,  and  to  improve  their  work." 

"We  have  been  giving  a  series  of  standard  tests 
for  some  years  now  to  the  children  in  our  schools," 

said  R .  "First,  we  tested  their  skill  in  adding, 

subtracting,  multiplying,  and  dividing  numbers, 
and  by  repeating  these  tests,  not  only  has  their  skill 
improved,  but  we  have  been  able  to  determine 
about  how  many  sums  of  a  given  degree  of  difficulty 
children  can  add  to  advantage  in  say  eight  minutes. 
Thus  we  have  tried  to  find  the  proper  limit  of  speed 
which  is  compatible  with  accuracy.  If  they  attempt 
to  do  more  in  that  time,  accuracy  is  sacrificed  to 
speed ;  if  less,  both  speed  and  accuracy  seem  to  fall 
off.  In  this  way  we  are  trying  to  determine  what  we 
may  reasonably  expect  to  accomplish  and  what 
therefore  should  be  required  in  our  course  of  study 
in  the  four  fundamental  operations  of  arithmetic. 
We  shall  next  attempt  to  make  the  same  sort  of  tests 
in  regard  to  the  teaching  of  fractions  and  interest 
and  the  other  applications  of  these  four  fundamental 
operations. 

"We  have  made  similar  studies  to  provide  lists 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  65 

of  words  which  the  children  should  learn  to  spell. 
Professor  Jones  in  a  western  university,  some  time 
ago,  with  the  cooperation  of  teachers  in  all  parts  of 
the  United  States,  procured  10,000  compositions 
written  by  school  children  on  subjects  of  their  own 
choosing,  and  carefully  tabulated  the  words  which 
they  used  in  them.  He  found  that  they  had  em- 
ployed some  2100  different  words  in  all,  and  he 
believes  that  this  total  of  words  may  be  taken  as 
representing  the  aggregate  writing  vocabulary  of  the 
American  elementary-school  child.  Of  course,  it  is 
not  the  vocabulary  of  any  one  child,  and  different 
children  have  difficulty  in  spelling  different  words  in 
it.  This  list  was  sent  out  to  the  schools,  and  a  series 
of  trials  was  made  to  find  out  which  of  these  words 
our  children  could  spell  and  which  they  could  not, 
and  therefore  needed  to  study.  The  results  were 
carefully  tabulated  and  lists  were  formed  and  re- 
duced to  lessons  which  were  printed  on  detached 
sheets  at  the  expense  of  the  school  department, 
which  lists  are  now  being  used  as  our  textbook  in 
spelling." 

"Would  it  not  be  better  for  us  to  try  to  find  out 
what  words  folks  have  occasion  to  write  when  they 
leave  school  ? "  was  the  question  of  one  of  the  com- 
pany. 

"We  have  now  begun  to  try  to  find  out,  in  the 
same  way,  what  our  lessons  in  geography  should  be. 
In  conjunction  with  experts  in  that  subject,  we 
prepared  a  list  of  ten  typical  questions  on  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  United  States  and  seven  on  the  geog- 
raphy of  Europe.  This  list  of  questions  was  given 


66  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

as  an  examination  to  advanced  classes  in  several 
representative  elementary  schools,  the  total  number 
of  elementary -school  pupils  who  attempted  to  answer 
the  questions  being  594.  It  was  also  given  to  165 
third-year  high-school  pupils  and  to  a  class  of  first- 
year  students  in  the  normal  school.  One  question 
required  the  students  to  locate  New  York  and  San 
Francisco  upon  an  outline  map  of  the  United  States 
which  was  printed  upon  the  paper.  Another  ques- 
tion was :  Why  are  the  flood  plains  in  the  central 
part  of  the  United  States  well  adapted  to  agriculture  ? 
In  marking  the  answers  the  greatest  leniency  was 
shown;  for  example,  if  New  York  City  was  located 
anywhere  within  the  limits  of  New  York  State,  the 
answer  was  given  full  credit.  But  by  most  of  the 
pupils  it  was  not  so  located;  it  was  put  anywhere 
along  the  coast  or  in  the  interior,  the  fact  that  it  is 
a  seaport  being  quite  forgotten  by  many  of  them. 
No  one  answered  the  second  question  correctly, 
though  flood  plain  is  a  term  which  is  fully  explained 
and  is  treated  at  considerable  length  in  the  geog- 
raphy which  they  have  been  studying.  Eight  and 
seven-tenths  per  cent  of  the  594  elementary-school 
pupils  passed  the  test  on  the  geography  of  the  United 
States ;  four  and  eight-tenths  per  cent  of  the  high- 
school  students,  and  one  out  of  the  whole  number  of 
86  normal-school  students  passed  it.  No  one  passed 
in  the  geography  of  Europe." 

"How  many  facts  does  a  student  of  geography  find 
recounted  in  his  lessons  in  that  subject  for  a  single 
year,  do  you  suppose?"  asked  the  superintendent. 
"Would  you  say  as  many  as  ten  thousand?" 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  67 

"I  should  say  fully  as  many  as  that,"  replied  Mr. 

R .  "Our  effort  is  to  simplify  and  organize  the 

lessons  we  require  the  children  to  learn.  They  are 
completely  confused  by  the  great  mass  of  material 
which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  putting  before  them. 
They  do  not  know  what  they  are  expected  to  do,  nor 
why  they  should  give  attention  to  this  rather  than 
to  that.  Neither  do  we  seem  to.  The  result  is 
awful.  We  must  find  the  irreducible  minimum 
which  a  school  child  should  attempt  to  work  within 
each  of  these  different  subjects,  and  we  must  fix  our 
attention  upon  that.  There  is  no  other  way  to 
bring  order  out  of  this  chaos." 

It  was  the  superintendent's  turn  to  speak  next. 
"A  teacher,"  he  said,  "has  recently  come  to  us  from 
one  of  the  countries  to  the  south  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  she  has  been  preparing  to  take  our  examination 
for  a  license  in  the  subject  of  arithmetic.  She  says, 
'You  employ  so  many  queer  terms  and  such  strange 
tables  in  your  arithmetic  that  I  am  in  doubt  whether 
I  shall  be  able  to  master  it.  In  the  other  parts  of 
America  we  use  the  metric  system,  and  it  is  as  easy 
to  learn  to  compute  by  it  as  it  is  to  learn  to  spell.' 
Then  I  saw  quite  clearly  with  what  an  unjust  burden 
of  nearly  insuperable  difficulty,  through  our  crude 
method  of  pronouncing  English  words  as  they  are 
not  spelled  and  spelling  them  as  they  are  not  pro- 
nounced, we  handicap  every  English-speaking  child. 
Much  the  same  is  true  of  arithmetic.  Is  there  any 
real  reason  for  our  clinging  so  tenaciously  to  an 
antiquated  and  illogical  system  of  weights  and 
measures  when  nearly  every  other  nation  has 


68  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

adopted  a  simpler  one?    We  are  creatures  of  habit, 
and  visit  our  sins  upon  our  children. 

"You  have  been  saying  bitter  things  about 
grammar,  but  you  have  not  said  hah*  enough.  It 
begins  with  a  definition  which  runs  something  like 
this :  '  Grammar  is  the  science  which  treats  of  the 
principles  of  language,  and  the  art  of  using  them.*  I 
frequently  go  into  schoolrooms  and  find  the  children 
studying  it.  I  ask  them  to  tell  me  what  grammar 
is  and  they  repeat  the  definition  which  they  have 
memorized.  Then  I  say,  *  Since  you  have  been 
studying  the  principles  of  language  for  some  time,  will 
any  of  you  tell  me  one  principle  which  you  have 
learned?'  I  have  never  yet  succeeded  in  getting 
one.  Then  I  turn  to  the  teacher  and  ask,  'What 
principles  of  language  have  you  been  studying  with 
them  ? '  The  teacher  is  no  more  able  to  answer  than 
are  the  pupils.  I  ask  them  what  grammar  tells 
them  about,  and  they  reply,  'About  the  parts  of 
speech  and  the  kinds  of  sentences.'  I  ask  then, 
'What  are  the  parts  of  speech?'  They  name  them 
beginning  with  the  noun.  Then  I  ask  them  what 
part  of  speech  I  am.  They  answer  you  are  a  noun, 
and  some  say,  'No,  a  pronoun.'  I  strike  the  desk 
with  my  hand  and  ask  what  part  of  speech  that  is. 
'A  verb,'  they  say.  Sometimes  I  get  correct  answers 
from  eighth-grade  children,  but  rarely  from  children 
below  that  grade.  The  distinctions  which  we  seek  to 
have  them  make  are  beyond  their  comprehension  at 
that  early  age.  There  is  little  profit  in  trying  to 
force  children  to  make  them.  We  teach  them  a  kind 
of  rigmarole  which  they  learn  and  go  through  with 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  69 

some  success  when  they  parse  a  word  or  diagram  a 
sentence ;  but  as  for  principles  of  speech,  they  might 
just  as  well  be  playing  checkers. 

"This  same  honoring  of  definitions  above  things 
goes  on  in  geography.  Of  course,  it  goes  on  else- 
where too,  indeed  it  goes  on  in  every  study.  Did 
you  ever  stop  to  think  what  a  fiendish  enemy  of  the 
human  race  words  have  been  ever  since  men  began 
to  use  them  ?  First,  the  savage  was  unable  to  dis- 
tinguish the  name  of  the  thing  from  its  essence,  and 
made  the  man-destroying  mistake  of  assuming  that 
he  could  control  things  and  make  them  do  what  he 
wanted  them  to  do  if  he  called  upon  their  names. 
There  you  have  the  whole  story  of  magic  rites,  in- 
cantations, and  talismans  in  a  nutshell.  But  think 
how  it  all  lay  like  an  ocean,  through  which  men 
could  not  make  their  way,  across  the  path  of  human 
progress.  At  last  in  one  little  corner  of  earth,  in 
Attica,  men  got  themselves  free  from  magic  words 
and  set  about  the  task  of  trying  to  find  out  what  they 
must  do  to  live  as  they  wanted  to  live.  They  in- 
vented sciences  which  to  them  were  nothing  but 
carefully  worked  out  investigations  as  to  what  men 
should  do  and  what  views  they  should  hold  about 
highly  important  human  matters.  Then  come  the 
idol-makers  again,  and  personify  and  hypostatize 
these  tools  which  man  has  made  to  help  him  in  his 
work;  and  being  unable  to  look  away  once  more 
from  what  are  now  magic  names  to  the  thoughts  of 
which  they  are  the  names,  they  go  the  savage,  not 
one,  but  a  whole  dozen  better  by  creating  a  priesthood 
not  to  manipulate  things  by  means  of  words,  but  in 


70  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

ever  singing  choirs  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  words, 
and  to  teach  the  young  of  every  country  meaning- 
less catechisms  of  words,  to  words,  and  for  words. 
"Have  you  ever  heard  the  statement  that  'edu- 
cation is  linguistic'?  Well,  it  is,  and  more's  the 
pity.  Would  that  the  Greeks  might  come  again  and 
free  it  once  more  from  that  curse.  There  is  not  a 
single  corner  of  the  vast  undertaking  where  words 
and  phrases  are  not  cultivated  to  the  detriment  of 
thought.  I  went  into  a  schoolroom  where  children 
were  engaged  in  writing  the  sentence  'An  island  is  a 
body  of  land  entirely  surrounded  by  water'  over  and 
over  again  a  great  many  times  in  their  notebooks. 
Their  writing  was  good  too.  The  teacher  asked  me 
what  I  thought  of  it,  and  I  said  it  was  good;  but 
'I  don't  like  your  sentence,'  I  said.  'The  trouble 
with  it  is  that  it  is  not  true.  An  island  may  be  of 
stone  or  of  lava  or  of  coral ;  it  is  not  always  of  land, 
and  it  need  not  be  surrounded  by  water,  it  may  be 
surrounded  by  oil  or  by  ice  or  by  molten  lava. 
WTiat  you  say  of  an  island  does  not  distinguish  it 
from  a  continent!'  Those  children  were  repeating 
words,  not  studying  geography.  So  convinced  am 
I  of  this  that  I  do  not  allow  the  facts  of  geography 
to  be  studied  in  the  same  year  with  the  definitions. 
Let  the  facts  come  first  and  the  definitions  wait. 
If  we  know  the  facts  in  this  instance  and  that  and  the 
other,  we  shall  in  time  of  course  forget  most  of  the 
instances,  but  we  shall  have  built  up  a  core  of  under- 
standing of  that  which  is  common  to  each  kind  among 
them,  which  will  remain.  If  we  start  with  instances, 
we  shall  build  up  our  knowledge;  but  if  we  start 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  71 

with  verbiage,  we  shall  never,  at  least  in  most 
cases,  get  beyond  verbiage,  and  verbiage  is  soul- 
destroying. 

"I  believe  that  the  time  to  study  English  grammar 
is  when  a  person  begins  another  language  that  has  a 
grammar.  Then  he  is  constantly  required  to  look 
back  to  his  own  language,  and  ask  how  it  handles 
this  same  matter.  Grammar  is  possible  as  a  com- 
parative study ;  it  is  meaningless  until  then." 

"Do  you  not  think  it  is  a  great  advantage  then  for 
students  to  study  Latin  ?  "  some  one  asked. 

"I  do  not  know,"  he  said.  "I  was  in  a  high- 
school  classroom  a  little  time  ago  where  the  class 
was  engaged  in  translating  Caesar.  'At  the  setting 
of  the  sun,'  one  young  lady  was  saying,  'at  the  setting 
of  the  sun,  many  wounds  having  been  given  and 
received,  Caesar  withdrew  from  battle.'  'I  have 
never  heard  young  women  in  conversation  say  "at 
the  setting  of  the  sun,'"  I  remarked.  'How  do  we 
say  that?'  'We  say  "at  sunset,"'  one  young 
woman  suggested.  '"Many  wounds  having  been 
given  and  received."  How  do  we  express  that?' 
No  one  volunteered  to  offer  a  phrase,  so  I  proposed 
'after  a  severe  skirmish'  or  'after  a  bloody  engage- 
ment.' 'Now  how  does  it  read?'  But  the  teacher 
objected  that  the  college  examiners  would  never 
accept  such  a  rendering  in  a  college  entrance  exami- 
nation paper,  and  the  school  must  prepare  its  students 
to  enter  college.  'Suppose  you  write  to  them  and 
ask  them  if  they  would  not,'  I  suggested.  She  did 
so,  and  some  weeks  afterward  I  was  notified  that 
the  college  authorities  preferred  a  literal  translation. 


72  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Translation  English  is  very  different  from  the  mother 
tongue. 

"I  have  never  been  quite  able  to  understand  why 
the  study  of  Latin  is  good  mental  training,"  said  our 
host.  "But  I  believe  that  it  is  because  it  seems  to 
bring  that  result.  The  only  reason  why  it  does  so 
that  I  can  think  of,  apart  from  the  fact  that  it 
sticks  out  a  very  distant  point  in  the  world  and 
thereby  gives  a  very  wide  base  for  the  imagination  to 
work  upon,  is  that  the  mental  process  which  it  re- 
quires is  the  same  as  that  required  in  every  practical 
undertaking  Making  out  a  Latin  sentence  requires 
the  student  to  hold  in  mind  a  dozen  different  prob- 
lems, each  with  several  possible  solutions,  and  then 
to  find  one  hypothesis  which  will  satisfy  them  all. 
This  is  true  of  the  beginners  in  Latin  for  whom  each 
word  may  mean  one  of  two,  three,  or  a  half-dozen 
different  things.  Compared  with  that  the  process 
which  is  a  straightaway  matter  of  learning  is  so 
much  more  simple  that  it  is  not  in  the  same  class 
at  all." 

"That  is  my  view  of  it  also,"  said  Mr.  X . 

"We  must  not  forget  that  the  main  business  of 
education  is  to  help  pupils  to  acquire  the  art  of 
thinking  well  about  everything.  There  are  some 
studies  that  do  that.  Latin  is  one  of  them.  Greek 
is  another.  Mathematics  is  another.  Young  people 
must  be  trained  to  exactness.  These  studies  are 
mighty  good  for  that.  Caesar  was  always  a  great 
delight  to  me.  I  recall  his  account  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  bridge  with  pleasure  to  this  day, 
though  it  was  many  years  ago  that  I  read  it.  I  think 


WHY  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  73 

we  must  not  let  ourselves  become  too  narrowly 
utilitarian." 

"Shall  I  sick  you  on  them?"  said  the  superinten- 
dent to  me,  for  he  knew  that  the  doctrine  of  formal 
discipline  was  my  pet  abhorrence. 

"No,"  I  said,  "what  is  the  use?  Mr.  X and 

our  host  here  cannot  be  converted  from  the  error  of 
their  ways.  They  are  now  going  back  on  all  they 
said  earlier  in  the  evening,  but  what  of  that  ?  They 
can  not  let  a  little  matter  like  the  right  kind  of 
education  for  all  the  children  of  this  city,  this  state, 
and  our  country  shake  their  confidence  in  the  finality 
of  the  educational  theory  which  supports  the  teaching 
of  Latin.  Studies  are  good,  they  think,  not  because 
we  use  them,  but  because  they  have  magic  powers." 

"Did  you  ever  stop,"  said  the  superintendent, 
"to  think  that  the  folks  who  tell  us  that  by  studying 
one  thing  we  learn  another  ought  to  prove  their  case  ? 
The  burden  of  proof  is  on  them  since  they  make  the 
assertion.  Yet  their  claim  never  has  been  proved. 
Many  of  the  best  thinkers  of  the  world  have  opposed 
it  as  Plato  did  when  he  said,  '  I  have  hardly  ever 
known  a  mathematician  who  could  reason ' ;  as 
Quintilian  did  when  he  refused  to  accept  the  view 
that  geometry  is  valuable  to  us  while  we  study  it 
but  not  in  after  life ;  and  as  John  Locke  did  when  he 
said  that  he  wished  those  who  claimed  that  the 
memory  could  be  improved  spoke  with  as  much 
authority  of  reason  as  they  did  with  forwardness  of 
assurance.  It  is  said  that  all  wars  are  wars  about 
doctrine.  It  is  certain  that  all  education  is  the  out- 
growth of  doctrine.  The  doctrine  which  is  behind 


74  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

much  of  that  which  we  do  in  elementary  schools, 
high  schools,  and  colleges  is  not  sound  doctrine. 

"I  said  a  moment  ago  that  those  who  maintain 
that  if  we  want  to  do  one  thing  we  must  train 
ourselves  to  do  another,  have  not  proved  their  case. 
That  is  not  because  of  an  oversight  on  their  part 
but  because  they  cannot  prove  it.  It  has  already 
been  disproved.  They  say  that  they  train  the  facul- 
ties of  the  mind.  They  do  nothing  of  the  sort,  for 
psychologists  have  taught  for  a  hundred  years  that 
the  mind  is  not  made  up  of  faculties.  We  have 
memories,  not  memory ;  imaginings,  not  imagination ; 
observings,  not  observation;  reasonings,  not  the 
reason;  and  ten  thousand  acts  of  will,  not  a  single 
faculty  which  men  used  to  call  the  will.  Why  then  do 
educators  try  to  do  what  psychologists  tell  them 
cannot  be  done?  In  spite  of  all  the  psychologists 
tell  them,  they  still  believe  that  in  some  way  they 
can  train  the  memory,  the  imagination,  the  observa- 
tion, the  thinking  power,  and  the  will  as  a  whole. 
They  can  not.  'The  great  assumption  upon  which 
education  has  rested  for  so  many  centuries,'  as 
Professor  Spearman  says,  'is  now  at  last  rendered 
amenable  to  experimental  corroboration  —  and  it 
proves  to  be  false!'  The  ancient  idol  has  been 
demolished  by  painstaking  research.  The  doctrine 
of  formal  discipline  must  go  the  way  of  outworn 
superstitions.  We  must  set  ourselves  to  the  task 
of  working  out  a  new  program  of  studies  which 
shall  train  our  students  to  think  the  thoughts  and 
do  the  things  which  folks  who  live  as  we  want  to  live 
must  think  and  do." 


^  WE  GET  ON  SO  SLOWLY  75 

"Why  call  it  a  new  program,"  I  said,  "or  think 
that  you  have  made  a  discovery  in  education?  I 
think  that  the  notion  that  education  is  just  learning 
to  do  the  things  that  one  will  have  to  keep  on  doing 
as  long  as  he  lives  is  the  oldest  notion,  as  well  as  the 
truest,  which  men  have  held  about  it." 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE1 

IT  has  been  said  that  "the  problem  of  mental  dis- 
cipline, of  determining  under  what  conditions,  by 
what  methods,  and  to  what  extent  training  received 
in  a  given  line  of  mental  activity  spreads  to  other 
lines  of  mental  activity  is  acknowledged  to  be  the 
central  problem  of  educational  psychology." 2  It  is 
more  than  that,  it  is  the  central  problem  of  educa- 
tional philosophy  as  well,  and  the  attitude  which 
we  who  teach  take  upon  this  problem  determines 
as  nothing  else  does  what  we  put  into  courses  of 
study  and  how  we  teach  that  which  we  attempt  to 
teach.  Until  we  can  get  our  bearings  on  this  sub- 
ject we  simply  can  not  get  our  educational  bear- 
ings at  all. 

The  doctrine  of  formal  or  general  education  is  a 
heritage  from  the  past ;  it  is  a  theory  concerning  the 
value  of  studies  which  has  a  history,  but  not  by  any 
means  so  long  or  so  compelling  a  history  as  we  are 
sometimes  told  that  it  has.  When  palaeolithic  man 
invented  stone  implements,  he  doubtless  taught  his 
children  how  to  make  and  use  them ;  when  his 
descendants  invented  the  bow  and  arrow,  they  taught 
their  children  how  to  shoot  with  them.  Whatever 

1  An  address  before  the  New  England  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Secondary  Schools  Nov.  11,  1916. 

2  Whipple  in  the  preface  to  Rugg's  The  Experimental  Determination 
of  Mental  Discipline  in  School  Studies. 

76 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       77 

training  they  gave  was  specific,  and  all  education  was 
frankly  and  clearly  specific  until  the  Sophists  came 
and  taught  that  if  one  wanted  to  be  a  physician  he 
should  study  rhetoric,  or  if  he  wanted  to  be  a  general 
he  should  learn  to  make  speeches.  They  brought  in 
confusion ;  but  Socrates  cleared  it  up  by  perpetually 
insisting  that  one  must  learn  "human  and  public 
virtue"  or  excellence,  in  the  same  way  that  he  learned 
to  build  houses  or  make  shoes.  This,  too,  was  the  view 
of  Plato,  throughout  whose  works  insistence  that 
education  is  specific  is  as  marked  as  it  was  in  the 
discussions  of  Socrates.  But  in  the  Republic  Plato 
uses  a  sentence  or  two  about  the  study  of  arithmetic 
and  geometry  stirring  the  mind  to  greater  keenness, 
which  led  some  men  who  read  his  dialogues  to  say  that 
when  we  study  arithmetic  and  geometry,  we  do  not 
merely  learn  to  think  arithmetically  or  geometrically, 
but  we  improve  our  minds  throughout.  Plato  takes 
pains  to  show  that  that  is  not  his  meaning,  for  in  the 
same  connection  he  says  that  students  must  go  on 
from  mathematics  to  dialectic,  for  "I  have  hardly 
ever  known  a  mathematician  who  could  reason."  1 
There  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  Aristotle  believed 
in  anything  but  specific  education.  The  next  men- 
tion we  have  of  the  doctrine  is  in  Quintilian,  where 
it  is  stated  only  to  be  dismissed.  This  is  the  passage : 
"As  to  Geometry,  people  admit  that  some  attention 
to  it  is  of  advantage  in  tender  years,  for  they  allow 
that  the  thinking  powers  are  excited  and  the  intellect 
sharpened  by  it  and  that  a  quickness  of  perception  is 
thence  produced ;  but  they  fancy  that  it  is  not  like 

1  Republic  531. 


78  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

other  sciences,  profitable  after  it  has  been  acquired, 
but  only  whilst  it  is  being  studied." l  Then  Quintilian 
goes  on  to  point  out  that  it  is  to  be  studied  for  certain 
specific  kinds  of  profit  after  it  has  been  acquired. 

As  nearly  as  I  can  discover,  everything  which  was 
taught  during  the  dark  ages,  the  lesser  renaissance, 
the  greater  renaissance  and  the  period  of  the  German 
reformation  was  taught  and  studied  under  the  con- 
viction that  it  was  specifically  useful.  The  contrary 
doctrine  that  studies  are  to  be  pursued,  not  for  their 
specific  values  but  because  they  improve  the  mind, 
has  sometimes  been  wished  upon  John  Locke.  And 
there  are  some  passages  in  his  writings  which  seem 
to  justify  that  interpretation,  but  there  is  one  passage 
in  which  he  clearly  and  definitely  repudiates  it. 
"I  hear  it  said  that  children  should  be  employed  in 
getting  things  by  heart  to  exercise  and  improve  their 
memories.  I  could  wish  this  were  said  with  as  much 
authority  of  reason  as  with  forwardness  of  assurance 
and  that  this  practice  were  established  upon  good 
observation  more  than  old  custom.  For  it  is  evident 
that  strength  of  memory  is  owing  to  a  happy  con- 
stitution and  not  to  any  habitual  improvement  got 
by  exercise."  a 

Some  years  ago  at  Yale  University  one  of  my 
students,  Dr.  S.  L.  Eby,  took  for  the  subject  of  his 
doctor's  thesis  a  study  of  educational  practice  in 
Germany  in  the  18th  century.  That  thesis  has  not 
been  published,  but  is  on  file  in  the  Yale  library.  In  it 
he  shows  quite  conclusively  that  in  Germany  about 
the  middle  of  the  18th  century  the  teachers  of  the 

1  Institutes  Bk.  1-34.  l  Thoughts  on  Education,  176. 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       79 

classics  began  first  in  one  place  then  in  another,  and 
finally  pretty  generally,  to  defend  their  teaching  of 
Latin  and  Greek  against  the  attacks  which  the  realists 
were  making  upon  them  by  saying  that  the  study  of 
the  classics  does  more  than  give  a  knowledge  of  the 
classics,  that  they  discipline,  improve  and  perfect 
the  mental  faculties  of  the  students  who  pursue 
them.  Thus  twenty-three  hundred  years  after  Plato 
made  his  chance  remark  about  the  study  of  arith- 
metic and  geometry  making  the  mind  of  the  student 
keener,  which  he  took  pains  to  explain  does  not  mean 
that  a  mathematician  can  think,  this  view  of  the 
function  of  studies  which  was  not  anywhere  accepted 
by  teachers  or  students  until  the  earlier  reasons  for 
studying  the  classics  had  lost  their  force,  became  the 
operative  philosophy  of  education  throughout  the 
west.  The  beginnings  of  faculty  education  syn- 
chronize with  the  development  of  faculty  psychology. 
As  long  as  psychologists  taught  that  the  truest  view 
of  the  mind  was  that  it  was  made  up  of  faculties, 
the  observation,  the  imagination,  the  memory,  the 
reason,  the  emotions,  and  the  will,  it  was  inevitable 
that  schoolmasters  should  devote  themselves  to 
developing  and  perfecting  these  faculties.  But  the 
faculty  psychology  was  destroyed  by  the  critical 
studies  of  Herbart  nearly  100  years  ago,  yet  perhaps 
as  many  as  80  per  cent  of  the  teachers  of  to-day  and 
very  nearly  100  per  cent  of  present  day  parents  still 
hold  to  the  theory  of  faculty  training  as  firmly  as  though 
the  faculty  psychology  had  not  been  abandoned. 

There  seem  to  have  been  critics  of  this  educational 
doctrine  ever  since  it  was  first  introduced,  but  they 


80  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

were  not  able  to  make  any  headway  against  its  on- 
rushing  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  19th  century  the  opposition  to 
it  became  so  powerful  that  the  cruder  claim  of 
educators  to  train  the  memory,  the  observation,  the 
imagination,  the  reason  and  the  will  as  faculties  has 
now  been  abandoned  in  their  writings. 

Cardinal  Newman  challenged  the  doctrine  when 
he  wrote  of  having  known  men  "who  could  without 
effort  run  through  the  succession  of  days  on  which 
Easter  fell  for  years  back ;  or  could  say  where  they 
were  or  what  they  were  doing  on  a  given  day  in  a 
given  year;  or  could  recollect  the  Christian  names 
of  friends  and  strangers  ;  or  could  enumerate  in  exact 
order  the  names  of  all  the  shops  from  Hyde  Park 
Corner  to  the  Bank ;  or  had  so  mastered  the  Uni- 
versity Calendar  as  to  be  able  to  bear  an  examination 
in  the  academical  history  of  any  M.A.  taken  at  ran- 
dom, and  I  believe  in  most  of  these  cases  the  talent, 
in  its  exceptional  character,  did  not  extend  beyond 
several  classes  of  subjects.  There  are  a  hundred 
memories  as  there  are  a  hundred  virtues." 

There  are  numerous  pathological  cases  in  which 
the  patient  has  lost  the  memory  of  things  heard, 
because  of  a  lesion  affecting  the  brain  center  which 
controls  hearing,  but  has  not  lost  the  memory  of 
things  seen  or  touched  or  tasted  or  smelled,  and  other 
cases  in  which  he  has  lost  the  memory  of  things  seen 
but  not  the  memory  of  things  heard,  etc.  In  1890 
Professor  James  undertook  by  experiment  to  deter- 
mine the  influence  of  training  in  memorizing  one 
kind  of  verse  upon  efficiency  in  memorizing  other 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       81 

kinds  of  verse.  He  first  committed  158  lines  of 
Victor  Hugo's  "Satyr."  It  took  some  part  of  eight 
days  and  a  total  time  of  131$  minutes.  He  then 
trained  his  memory  by  working  twenty  minutes 
a  day  in  committing  "Paradise  Lost"  and  finally 
committed  the  first  book.  After  this  training  he 
went  back  to  Victor  Hugo's  "Satyr"  and  found  that 
to  commit  158  additional  lines,  the  same  number  as 
before,  took  20  minutes  longer  than  before  the  train- 
ing. Four  of  his  students  repeated  the  test.  Two 
of  them  showed  considerable  gain  after  practice, 
two  none  at  all.  Professor  James  stated  it  as  his 
conviction  that  the  native  retentiveness  which  we 
bring  with  us  at  birth  can  not  be  changed. 

Since  that  first  laboratory  study  a  whole  literature 
of  experiments  on  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline 
has  come  into  being.  Prior  to  1900  three  experi- 
mental studies  were  published,  but  in  Rugg's  recent 
book 1  the  results  of  some  thirty  experimental  in- 
vestigations are  reviewed  and  tabulated,  thus  show- 
ing that  the  experimental  study  of  this  problem  is  of 
quite  recent  date. 

Before  we  take  up  the  consideration  of  these 
experiments  let  us  ask  what  they  were  undertaken 
to  prove.  They  were  not  undertaken  to  find  out 
whether  or  not  the  memory,  the  observation,  the 
imagination,  the  reason,  the  emotions  and  the  will 
can  be  trained  as  faculties  or  powers  in  a  wholesale 
fashion,  for  nothing  more  was  needed  to  show  that 
these  "powers  of  the  mind"  can  not  be  trained  as 

1  The  Experimental  Determination  of  Mental  Discipline  in  School 
Studies,  Warwick  and  York,  Baltimore. 


82  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

powers  than  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  no 
such  powers  exist. 

In  some  respects  it  would  have  been  fortunate  for 
education  if  the  whole  matter  had  been  left  there,  for 
if  attention  had  been  devoted  to  rooting  out  the 
pernicious  doctrine  that  the  faculties  of  the  mind 
can  be  trained  simply  by  pointing  out  that  no  such 
faculties  exist,  educational  practice  would  be  meas- 
urably better  to-day  than  it  is. 

|  If  the  memory  can  not  be  trained  or  developed  as 
a  memory,  if  the  observation  or  the  imagination  or 
the  reason  or  the  will  can  not  be  trained  as  a  faculty 
or  power,  then  the  doctrine  of  general  education  must 
forthwith  be  given  up,  for  it  is  the  doctrine  that  they 
can  be  so  trained.  When  the  doctrine  of  general 
education  is  given  up,  as  it  must  be,  only  specific 
education  remains. 

The  question  which  has  been  so  diligently  in- 
vestigated in  recent  years  is  not  at  all  the  question 
whether  the  "powers  of  the  mind"  can  be  trained. 
No  investigator  even  thinks  it  worth  while  to  con- 
sider so  absurd  a  proposal.  The  question  which  is 
being  investigated  is  to  what  extent  that  which  is 
learned  in  one  context  is  and  can  be  applied  in  an- 
other context.  In  many  respects  this  is  purely  a 
psychological  question  and  of  no  great  interest  to 
educational  practitioners.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
fact  that  loose  thinking  has  confused  two  issues  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bring  about  a  general  belief  that  the 
doctrine  of  faculty  training  has  been  supported  by 
investigations  which  are  not  at  all  concerned  with 
faculties  or  the  training  of  faculties,  teachers  would 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       83 

have  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  the  meager  and  un- 
satisfactory results  which  psychological  investigators 
report  concerning  the  spread  of  training  from  one 
undertaking  to  another.  For  this  unfortunate  result 
we  must  blame  the  logical  confusion  of  these  psy- 
chological investigators  themselves. 

"  We  note, "  writes  Professor  Dewey  in  his  "  Democ- 
racy and  Education,"  "that  the  distinction  between 
special  and  general  education  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  transferability  of  function  or  power.  In  the 
literal  sense  any  transfer  is  miraculous  and  impossible. 
But  some  activities  are  broad;  they  involve  a  co- 
ordination of  many  factors."  Training  in  these 
acts  is  specific,  but  they  have  many  applications 
and  are  called  for  in  many  different  situations. 
Hence  a  specific  activity  like  a  method  of  going  to 
work  to  solve  problems  or  to 'memorize  verses  may 
be  applied  in  many  different  contexts  and  have  a 
broad  utility.  No  one  thinks  for  a  moment  that  we 
shall  ever  be  called  upon  after  we  leave  school  to  use 
the  methods  which  we  acquired  in  school,  on  material 
exactly  like  that  in  connection  with  which  we 
learned  them.  The  arithmetical  problems  a  boy 
will  solve  in  life  are  different  from  those  he  solves  in 
school ;  and  the  political  questions  a  student  meets 
in  the  world  are  not  exactly  the  same  as  those  he 
studies  in  the  class  in  government.  But  they  are 
recognizably  similar,  else  he  could  not  possibly  use 
his  school  learning  to  react  to  them.  No  two  situa- 
tions in  which  we  find  ourselves  are  ever  alike  and 
yet  we  make  over  our  past  experience  to  meet  new 
situations  if  they  are  not  so  completely  novel  as  to 


84  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

confuse  us.  The  mind  is  a  generalize!*.  It  is  con- 
stantly engaged  in  stretching  past  experience  to  fit 
new  needs.  Everybody  must,  I  think,  admit  that. 
Now  the  question  which  is  being  experimentally 
determined  in  laboratories  is :  within  what  limits 
does  this  process  of  generalizing  take  place,  or  within 
what  limits  can  specific  learning  be  used  ?  But  very 
unfortunately  the  nomenclature  which  is  employed 
in  discussing  this  new  problem  is  the  nomenclature  of 
formal  or  general  discipline. 

Taking  these  experiments  for  what  they  really 
are  as  efforts  to  determine  within  what  limits  proc- 
esses are  generalized  let  us  ask  what  they  show. 
"Does  training  transfer?  Under  conditions  of 
training  studied  in  these  thirty  investigations  we  can 
answer  unequivocally,"  says  Rugg,  that  "there  is 
distinct  evidence  for  the  so-called  transference  of 
training.  The  experimental  training  of  the  abilities 
of  either  adults  or  school  children  in  either  laboratory 
or  schoolroom  will  result  in  an  increased  efficiency 
on  the  part  of  the  subjects,  in  other  abilities  which 
are  in  some  way  related  to  the  trained  abilities.  .  .  . 

*  Transfer'  is  an  accepted  fact,  but  as  to  the  extent 
to  which  training  transfers  and  the  most  favorable 
conditions  for  its  transfer,  specialists  are  not  always 
agreed  .  .  .  The  investigators  may  be  grouped  into 
two  schools :    (1)  those  who  believe  that  the  effect 
of  training  is  quite  specific  and  who  oppose  the  view 
that  transfer  can  be  possible  through  any  form  of 

*  generalization.'    (2)    Those  who   believe   that   the 
effect  of  practice  can  be  generalized.     Numerically 
the  latter  are  much  the  stronger." 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       85 

Of  the  nineteen  investigators  who  consider  the 
question  how  transfer  of  training  is  possible  — 
eleven  of  the  thirty  do  not  consider  this  question  — 
fifteen  declare  that  it  is  possible  through  certain 
factors  of  generalization.  The  experiments  show 
that  it  is  due  to  devising  methods  of  learning.  Dr. 
Rugg  quotes  one  writer's  explanation  as  significant. 
"Our  instruments  do  not  improve;  we  only  learn  to 
use  them  better.  Those  who  do  not  learn  to  use 
their  instruments  .  .  .  from  practice  show  little 
or  no  transfer  of  improvement  through  practice." 
"The  experiments,"  Dr.  Rugg  continues,  "show  that 
we  must  distinguish  between  the  ideational  possi- 
bilities of  transferred  improvement  and  the  vain  hope 
of  the  'spreading'  function  of  rigidly  developed  sen- 
sory, perceptual  and  motor  adjustments.  These 
latter  have  to  be  taken  over  into  new  situations  un- 
changed, and  can  operate  with  increased  efficiency 
only  as  the  conscious  utilization  of  them  in  combina- 
tion has  been  made  more  effective  through  experience. 
Thus  the  studies  indicate  that  the  law  of  learning  has 
to  be  made  a  conscious  matter  of  ideation  in  order  to 
insure  any  considerable  amount  of  transferred  im- 
provement. The  largest  improvement  seems  to 
come  when  the  subject  discovers  that  certain  methods 
are  helpful." 

These  results  seem  then  to  confirm  Professor 
James*  conclusion  completely:  "When  boys  im- 
prove by  practice  in  ease  of  learning  by  heart,  the 
improvement  will,  I  am  sure,  be  always  found  to  re- 
side in  the  mode  of  study  of  the  particular  piece  (due 
to  the  greater  interest,  the  greater  suggestiveness, 


86  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

the  generic  similarity  with  other  pieces,  the  more 
sustained  attention,  etc.)  and  not  at  all  to  any 
enhancement  of  the  brute  retentive  power." 

Methods  of  study  and  of  work  then  can  be  taught 
in  such  a  way  that  they  will  be  helpful  in  many 
different  situations.  We  can  learn  to  use  our  in- 
struments better  and  better,  but  our  innate  powers 
can  not  be  changed. 

The  most  thoroughgoing  and  critical  study  of  this 
entire  subject,  I  think,  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  work 
of  American  investigators,  but  in  Dr.  Sleight's  recent 
book,  "Educational  Values  and  Methods."  l  Pro- 
fessor Spearman,  the  distinguished  director  of  the 
psychological  laboratory  of  the  University  of  London, 
who  has  hitherto  been  classed  among  the  believers 
in  at  least  a  qualified  formal  discipline,  declares  in 
the  preface  which  he  writes  to  that  book  that  "the 
great  assumption  upon  which  education  has  rested 
for  so  many  centuries  is  now  at  last  rendered  ame- 
nable to  experimental  corroboration  —  and  it  proves 
to  be  false !  To  the  demolition  of  the  ancient  idol 
no  one  has  contributed  more  powerfully  than  Dr. 
Sleight;  his  .  .  .  experiments,  involving  very  great 
labor  for  many  years,  were  characterized  by  a 
perfection  of  technique  that  extorted  admiration 
even  from  those  investigators  whose  previous  meth- 
ods and  results  he  was  showing  to  be  faulty.  .  .  . 
The  conquests  of  science  are  not  made  by  storm, 
but  by  slow  sap.  .  .  .  His  main  principle  in- 
deed is  fixed  in  the  bedrock  of  accurate  psycholog- 
ical experiment.  .  .  .  When  it  becomes  advisable 

1  Oxford,  1915. 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       87 

that  old  branches  of  instruction  should  give  way  to 
new,  how  shall  this  be  demonstrated  to  those  for 
whom  the  old  branches  mean  livelihood  ?  Can  they 
be  expected  to  stand  so  far  above  all  other  classes  of 
humanity,  that  they  will  connive  at  their  own  exe- 
cution? We  must  anticipate,  rather,  all  the  bitter 
and  desperate  struggle  that  invariably  accompanies 
grave  menace  to  vested  interests." 

I  can  not  do  better  than  to  ask  you  to  read  that 
book.  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  indeed  an  epoch- 
making  work.  But  let  me  tell  you  very  briefly  what 
it  is  about.  Dr.  Sleight  examines  earlier  experi- 
ments critically  and  finds  them  faulty  and  incon- 
clusive in  certain  respects.  He  undertakes  a  series 
of  experiments  more  carefully  worked  out  than  any 
of  the  earlier  ones.  A  series  of  ten  memory  tests 
was  followed  by  twelve  half-hour  periods  of  practice, 
four  periods  in  each  week,  then  ten  more  memory 
tests  were  given,  followed  again  by  twelve  more 
periods  of  training  and  these  again  by  a  third  series 
of  tests.  The  experiment  was  carried  on  with 
children  of  an  average  age  of  twelve  years  and  eight 
months  in  three  different  schools. 

The  ten  tests  were : 

1.  The  exact  placing  from  memory  of  dots  within 
circles  after  several  views  of  a  large  cardboard  copy. 

2.  The  memorizing  of  dates. 

3.  Nonsense  syllables. 

4.  Verse. 

5.  Prose  extracts. 

6.  The  recall  of  the  substance  of  a  prose  extract. 

7.  Geographical  positions,  two  or  three  at  a  time, 


88 

were  shown  once  upon  a  wall  map  and  the  children 
were  then  required  to  place  them  from  memory  in 
an  outline  map  of  the  world. 

8.  Dictation  of  continuous  prose  in  portions  of 
increasing  length  (from  eight  to  nineteen  words). 

9.  Letters  dictated  from  four  to  eight  at  a  time. 

10.  Christian  names  and  surnames  dictated  to- 
gether in  twos,  threes  and  fours.     The  surname  was 
then  given  and  the  children  were  required  to  write 
down  the  Christian  name  belonging  to  it. 

In  each  school  the  tests  were  given  in  a  different 
order.  After  the  first  test  series  had  been  given  the 
children  in  each  school  were  arranged  into  four  groups. 

1st.  A  group  which  took  all  the  tests  but  none  of 
the  practice  training. 

2d.     A  group  which  practiced  with  verse. 

3d.     A  group  which  practiced  tables. 

4th.  A  group  which  practiced  the  reproduction 
of  the  substance  of  prose  extracts. 

The  children  in  these  groups  were  of  approximately 
equal  ability.  They  were  grouped  in  this  fashion 
to  find  out  if  practice  training  of  one  kind  had  more 
influence  upon  doing  the  work  of  the  tests  than  train- 
ing of  another  kind. 

Every  precaution  was  used  to  do  careful  and  exact 
work.  What  were  the  results? 

1st,  as  was  to  be  expected,  there  was  a  general 
improvement  in  all  the  tests  on  the  part  of  all  who 
took  them. 

2nd,  there  was  no  general  improvement  of 
trained  over  untrained.  There  was  no  sign  of  any 
"formal  discipline"  such  as  Meuman  believed  that 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       89 

his  experiments  showed,  but  of  which  Professor  Dear- 
born could  find  no  evidence  when  he  repeated  Meu- 
man's  tests.  The  pupils  who  took  only  the  tests 
became  more  proficient  in  the  ten  items  of  the  tests 
and  the  pupils  who  were  trained  in  particular  ways 
became  more  proficient  in  the  matter  upon  which  they 
were  trained,  but  there  was  no  heightened  proficiency 
in  the  nine- tenths  in] which  they  were  not  trained.  Dr. 
Sleight  concludes  that  "there  is  nothing  therefore  to 
warrant  the  assumption  of  a  general  memory  develop- 
ment." The  effect  of  the  training  throughout  was 
specific.  Practice  in  reproducing  prose  led  to  greater 
skill  in  reproducing  prose,  but  not  in  memorizing  verse 
or  nonsense  syllables.  Practice  in  memorizing  tables 
did  not  have  any  effect  in  date  memorizing.  Train- 
ing in  verse  and  tables  helped  materially  in  memoriz- 
ing nonsense  syllables  because  of  the  use  of  rhythm  in 
all  three  operations,  but  practice  in  prose  substance 
left  nonsense  syllables  unaided. 

After  this  elaborate  study  was  made  with  children, 
a  similar  investigation  was  carried  out  with  two 
classes  of  training  college  women  students  from 
eighteen  to  nineteen  years  of  age  with  almost  iden- 
tical results.  Again  there  was  general  improvement 
in  the  second  test  series,  but  again  there  was  no 
general  superiority  of  trained  over  untrained.  Dr. 
Sleight  states  as  his  conclusion  therefore  (1)  "That 
specific  memory  training  is  specific  in  its  effects; 
there  is  no  general  memory  function  which  can  be 
developed  by  feeding  it  upon  any  one  material. 
(2)  Psychical  factors,  such  as  attention  and  imagery, 
are  not  capable  of  general  development  merely  by 


90  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

means  of  one-sided  training.  Attention  to  arithmetic 
is  an  activity  which  may  increase  without  having 
any  influence  whatever  upon  the  power  to  give 
attention  to  good  manners  or  to  the  names  of  streets. 
Acts  of  attention  are  .  .  .  rather  distinct  and 
separate  acts,  differing  from  one  another  according 
to  the  stimuli  which  set  and  keep  them  going." 
(3)  In  cases  where  improvement  was  brought  about 
in  one  exercise  by  practice  in  another,  a  computation 
shows  that  direct  practice  was  worth  on  the  average 
144  times  as  much  as  indirect. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  transference 
of  training  in  recent  months.  Dr.  Sleight  shows  by 
these  figures  that  no  one  should  study  one  thing  in 
order  to  learn  another  unless  he  has  144  times  as 
much  leisure  and  energy  to  devote  to  the  indirect 
practice  as  he  needs  for  the  direct.  There  is  no 
warrant  for  the  belief  that  wherever  common  ele- 
ments exist  between  one  operation  and  another,  the 
effects  of  training  will  be  transferred;  on  the  con- 
trary, the  most  that  can  be  said,  is  that  wherever 
training  is  transferred,  common  elements  exist. 
Spread  of  training  is  very  rare  and  so  uncertain  and 
slight  as  to  afford  no  justification  whatever  for  the 
study  of  one  subject  in  order  to  learn  another.  We 
can  not  say  that  learning  to  think  out  arithmetical 
problems  will  help  us  to  think  out  geographical 
problems  or  political  problems.  We  can  not  even 
say  that  learning  to  solve  the  arithmetic  problems 
of  the  book  will  help  us  to  solve  those  of  the  market 
unless  our  study  of  arithmetic  in  school  has  been  of 
so  broad  and  concrete  and  practical  a  kind  that  we 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       91 

will  inevitably  recognize  the  applicability  of  what 
we  learned  in  school  to  the  problems  that  now  face 
us  and  demand  solution.  There  must  not  only  be  a 
common  element  in  the  practice  work  and  the  life 
work,  it  must  be  a  usable  common  element.  The 
only  way  to  make  it  usable  is  to  make  the  student 
keenly  aware  of  its  connections  with  the  very  matters 
upon  which  he  is  to  use  it. 

Thus  the  only  education  we  can  possibly  believe 
in  is  specific  education.  We  must  be  taught  to 
think  the  thoughts  and  work  with  the  things  which 
we  shall  have  to  work  with  as  long  as  we  live. 
Just  those  things  must  be  studied  and  not  subjects 
which  are  said  to  be  valuable  only  while  we  study 
them,  but  not  after  we  leave  school.  We  must 
regard  education  as  concretely  preparatory,  [and 
every  lesson  we  want  our  students  to  learn  we  must 
teach  them,  and  in  so  far  as  we  can,  we  must  teach 
it  with  reference  to  the  very  matters  upon  which 
they  will  have  occasion  to  use  it. 

The  war  is  showing  us  how  perversely  specialized 
the  mental  processes  of  peoples,  even  the  best  edu- 
cated ones,  are.  Our  minds  seem  to  react  by  prefer- 
ence only  to  that  with  which  they  are  familiar  and 
to  that  only  in  familiar  ways.  Inventions  would 
not  be  so  rare  if  we  could  readily  apply  the  principles 
of  work  with  which  we  are  familiar  to  new  situations 
with  which  we  are  not  familiar. 

The  fundamental  fallacy  of  the  theory  of  formal 
or  general  discipline,  as  Professor  Dewey  has  said,  is 
its  insistence  that  activities  and  processes  can  be 
acquired  apart  from  the  subject  matter  upon  which 


92  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

they  are  to  be  used ;  but  our  acts  are  always  specific. 
We  talk  about  the  memory  or  the  reason,  but  that  is 
only  a  name  for  remembering  this  or  remembering 
that  or  thinking  about  this  or  thinking  about  that. 
The  acts  are  many.  The  name  we  have  for  them  is 
one.  This  whole  misguided  and  preposterous  theory 
of  education  with  all  the  harm  it  has  caused  the  young 
of  many  generations  is  only  another  one  of  those  many 
confusions  which  language  has  caused  through  our 
uncritical  tendency  to  substitute  words  for  things. 
Memory  is  just  a  word,  there  is  no  such  a  thing. 
Only  memories  exist,  and  these  memories  are  always 
of  this,  that,  or  the  other  happening.  Reason  is 
just  a  word,  there  is  no  such  thing.  Only  reason- 
ings exist,  and  they  are  always  reasonings  about  the 
high  cost  of  living  or  the  war  in  Europe  or  the 
Mexican  situation  or  some  other  particular  question. 
If  we  want  folks  to  remember  things  which  are  worth 
remembering,  we  must  let  the  memory  alone  and  help 
them  to  memorize  the  particular  things  which  are 
worth  remembering.  If  we  want  them  to  reason 
about  the  things  which  are  worth  reasoning  about, 
we  must  let  the  reason  alone  and  devote  ourselves  to 
the  specific  task  of  reasoning  about  that  which  we 
want  to  reason  about.  This,  that,  or  the  other  can 
be  memorized  or  reasoned  about,  but  the  skill  is 
limited  to  the  content  about  which  it  is  generated. 
The  more  limited  and  specialized  the  content  is 
which  the  student  works  with,  the  more  fixed  and 
limited  are  the  actions  which  he  learns  to  perform 
and  the  more  a  specialist  he  becomes.  He  may  learn 
to  reason  about  cases,  moods,  and  tenses  in  such  a 


DOCTRINE  OF  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE       93 

way  as  to  distinguish  them  with  nearly  unerring 
accuracy,  but  the  more  he  fixates  the  forms  of  words 
the  less  will  he  fixate  the  thoughts  which  they 
normally  call  forth ;  and  the  more  of  a  specialist  in 
verbal  forms  he  becomes,  the  less  of  a  specialist  in 
meanings  he  will  be,  for  thoughts  and  meanings 
must  be  neglected  in  order  that  forms  and  endings 
may  be  fixated. 

To  the  objection  that  there  must  be  such  a  thing 
as  general  discipline  or  the  many  thousands  of  young 
men  who  for  nearly  two  centuries  have  been  sub- 
jected to  a  strictly  formal  training  could  never 
have  become  as  proficient  leaders  in  the  affairs  of 
life  as  so  many  of  them  became,  we  have  only  to 
answer  that  they  perhaps  became  proficient  in  other 
things  in  spite  of  these  studies,  not  because  of  them. 
When  we  remember  that  the  young  people  who  pur- 
sued these  formal  studies  were  a  selected  company 
of  the  leading  spirits  in  their  generation  when  they 
were  admitted  to  the  schools,  it  is  not  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  some  of  them,  at  least,  retained  their 
natural  superiority,  not  quite  unimpaired  to  be  sure, 
but  in  a  marked  degree,  even  after  submitting  them- 
selves to  forms  of  work  which  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  productive. 

At  any  rate,  it  must  be  noted  that  those  who 
contend  that  our  minds  are  trained  to  do  one  thing 
by  doing  another  have  never  yet  proved  their  case, 
though  the  burden  of  proof  is  on  them  since  they  make 
the  assertion.  That  failure  has  not  been  due  to  an 
oversight  on  their  part  either,  but  rather  to  the  fact 
that  their  case  can  not  be  proven. 


94  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

In  all  this  there  is  one  confusion  which  we  must  keep 
clear  of.  When  we  say  that  all  training  is  specific 
we  do  not  mean  that  education  should  be  narrow.  It 
can  not  be  that  and  be  the  kind  of  education  that  we 
want  or  that  most  people  want.  It  was  sufficient  for 
the  hunter  to  teach  his  son  to  shoot  with  the  bow  and 
arrow,  but  we  have  many  kinds  of  bows  and  arrows 
now,  rifles  and  42-centimeter  guns  and  systems  of 
national  and  international  law  and  morals  and 
sciences  and  histories  and  literatures  and  philoso- 
phies. They  are  all  instruments  which  we  must  learn 
to  work  and  each  one  must  be  taught  to  shoot  with 
a  representative  number  of  them.  But  general 
education  in  this  sense  is  a  combination  of  special  or 
particular  forms  of  education. 


DOES  THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS 
TRAIN  THE  MIND  SPECIFICALLY  OR 
UNIVERSALLY?1 

EDUCATION  is,  or  at  least  aims  to  be,  a  conscious 
process  and  a  purposive  undertaking.  To  teach 
anything  we  must  first  know  what  purpose  is  to  be 
served  by  it  and  how  it  must  be  taught  so  that  that 
purpose  will  be  served.  As  there  are  many  subjects 
which  might  be  studied  and  many  ways  in  which 
each  one  of  them  might  be  presented,  our  first  and 
continuing  duty  is  to  select  from  the  whole  number 
of  possible  subjects  those  few  which  are  indispensable 
for  the  purposes  of  life,  and  when  we  have  done  that, 
we  must  next  select  from  the  many  possible  ways  of 
studying  these  subjects  those  few  ways  of  approaching 
them  which  are  likely  to  lead  to  valuable  results. 

Now,  why  should  one  study  anything?  As  nearly 
as  I  can  discover  there  are  three  answers  which  are 
given  to  this  question.  First,  we  must  study  sub- 
jects because  we  owe  it  to  them  to  do  so.  It  is  a 
debt  of  honor,  of  reverence,  of  obeisance,  or  worship 
which  we  should  pay  them.  We  do  not  study  them 
for  what  they  do  for  us  or  what  they  will  enable 
us  to  do.  They  are  the  ends.  We  are  the  means. 
This  is  subject  worship,  a  kind  of  liturgical  devotion 

1  An  address  before  the  Association  of  Teachers  of  Mathematics  in 
New  England,  April  IS,  1917. 

95 


96  WHAT  THE   WAR  TEACHES 

which  we  are  told  we  must  pay  to  science,  literature, 
mathematics,  philosophy  when  they  are  hypostatized 
into  self-existing  realities.  Its  favorite  call  to 
prayer  is  science  for  the  sake  of  science,  literature 
for  the  sake  of  literature,  knowledge  for  the  sake  of 
knowledge,  and  art  for  art's  sake.  This  is  a 
peculiarly  inhuman  belief  which  annually  requires 
the  sacrifice  of  hecatombs  of  young  lives.  It  seems 
to  us  to  be  just  as  idolatrous  to  worship  the  crea- 
tions of  men's  minds  as  to  worship  the  creations  of 
men's  hands.  We  are  recommended  to  beware  of 
idols.  The  creator  is  more  to  be  revered  than  his 
creation.  When  the  creation  is  ascribed  virtue  in 
itself,  the  proper  relations  are  reversed.  Knowledge, 
art,  science,  literature,  philosophy  and  mathematics 
exist  for  man's  sake,  not  he  for  them.  The  question 
always  is,  what  are  they  to  him,  what  can  he  make 
out  of  them  ?  what  can  he  do  with  them  ?  Knowl- 
edge can  not  be  its  own  end.  It  must  be  for  some- 
thing. It  must  perform  some  work,  must  offer  some 
assistance,  must  serve  some  human  purpose.  We 
may  take  it  on  credit,  but  the  time  must  come  when 
it  will  pay  some  sort  of  dividends.  If  it  does  not, 
it  is  simply  useless  and  unmeaning.  It  makes  no 
difference  in  a  world  in  which  only  such  things  are 
regarded  as  real  as  make  a  difference. 

The  second  reason  for  studying  anything  is  that  we 
can  not  get  along  without  it.  It  is  an  indispensable 
aid  to  us  in  doing  our  work.  It  may  serve  us  in 
many  ways,  but  we  want  it  because  in  days  to  come 
we  shall  use  it.  It  is  because  we  are  going  to  read 
that  we  study  reading,  are  going  to  write  that  we 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS  97 

study  writing,  are  going  to  use  geography  and  history, 
literature  and  science  as  long  as  we  live  that  we 
study  geography,  history,  literature  and  science; 
and  the  parts  of  these  studies  which  are  outworn  or 
have  no  definite  utility  we  omit,  giving  our  attention 
exclusively  to  those  aspects  of  them  which  have 
abiding  value.  According  to  this  view  studies  are 
for  use  and  education  is  preparatory.  There  are 
so  many  difficult  things  that  each  one  of  us  must 
know  how  to  do  in  order  to  get  on  with  nature  and 
with  our  fellowmen,  that  the  whole  of  life  is  not 
sufficient  for  us  to  learn  them.  All  that  we  can  do  I 
in  youth  is  to  master  the  beginnings  of  a  few  of  the 
great  human  operations.  Advanced  life  must  helpi 
us  to  perfect  our  knowledge  of  them.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  is  immeasurably  important  that  we 
do  not  waste  our  time  upon  studies  or  parts  of  studies 
which  we  can  not  use  in  after  years  and  immeasurably 
important  that  we  study  the  subjects  that  have 
definite  utility  in  such  ways  that  we  will  go  on  using 
them  and  increasing  our  mastery  of  them  through 
the  years  that  are  to  come.  The  school,  then, 
exists  to  provide  special  opportunities  for  us  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  first  stages  of  our  life 
business  and  must  introduce  us  to  it  in  such  a  way 
that  we  shall,  from  the  first,  appreciate  its  meaning 
and  perform  it  with  a  growing  interest  and  an  expand- 
ing sense  of  its  worth,  so  that  when  our  school  days 
are  over  we  shall  know  that  our  education  has  but 
begun  and  will  go  on  applying  and  using  and  perfect- 
ing our  skill  in  the  great  arts  of  which  it  has  taught 
us  the  fundamentals  as  long  as  we  may  live.  Educa- 


98  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

tion,  according  to  this  view,  is  specific  throughout. 
Its  purpose  is  to  enable  the  student  to  acquire  the  be- 
ginnings of  certain  indispensable  forms  of  human  skill 
without  which  he  can  not  be  a  society-supporting  unit 
in  a  world  in  which  men  must  live  and  let  live  and  help 
themselves  and  each  other  in  doing  so.  Every  form 
of  skill  that  we  attempt  to  teach  him  gets  its  place 
in  the  school  program  solely  because  he  can  not  live 
a  civilized  life  without  practicing  it.  Traditional 
reasons  are  not  a  sufficient  warrant  for  teaching  any- 
thing. The  course  of  study  is  to  be  made  with 
reference  to  the  future,  not  because  of  veneration  for 
the  past  or  because  of  blind  adherence  to  the  prevail- 
ing practice  of  to-day.  The  training  of  the  young 
is  so  serious  a  responsibility  that  it  must  be  made 
throughout  a  conscious  undertaking.  Their  time 
must  not  be  wasted  and  their  futures  must  not  be 
trifled  away.  Nothing  must  be  attempted  in  their 
education  without  demonstrable  reasons  for  attempt- 
ing it.  Few  men  who  have  not  followed  closely  the 
advances  which  have  been  made  in  the  science  of 
education  in  recent  years  know  how  completely 
present-day  educational  theory  differs  from  the 
crude  traditionalism  of  an  earlier  time.  The  new 
efficiency  program  which  schools  are  trying  to  put 
into  practice  now  is  first  to  analyze  the  habits  we 
want  the  young  to  form,  to  set  up  specific  aims  by 
whittling  our  purposes  to  the  finest  point  in  helping 
them  to  form  them,  and  to  measure  carefully  the 
results  which  are  brought  about  by  instruction.  The 
effort  of  to-day  is  to  do  away  with  aimless  routinary 
education,  by  substituting  for  it  an  intelligent  pro- 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS  99 

cedure  which  shall  be  as  rational   as  our  present 
knowledge  demands  and  warrants. 

The  third  reason  which  has  been  assigned  for 
studying  anything  is  not  that  we  owe  it  to  the  thing 
we  are  invited  to  study  to  show  it  this  tribute  of 
respect  and  adoration,  or  that  we  shall  need  it  in 
order  to  do  our  part  in  carrying  on  the  unfinished 
business  of  the  race.  The  third  reason  for  studying 
certain  subjects  is  that  they  perfect  the  mind  and 
make  it  a  better  mind  than  it  was  before.  The  main 
province  of  the  school,  according  to  this  view,  is  to  train 
the  mind  not  by  putting  it  to  work  upon  the  matters 
it  will  have  to  work  upon  as  long  as  it  is  a  living  mind, 
but  to  prepare  it  to  work  upon  these  matters  by 
working  upon  others.  This  might  be  called  in- 
direct education,  because  it  maintains  that  the  best 
way  to  learn  to  do  one  thing  is  to  learn  to  do  another. 
But  if  the  theory  were  put  as  baldly  as  that,  no  one 
would  believe  it.  It  is  couched  in  a  more  seductive 
form.  Certain  studies,  we  are  told,  teach  us  not  only 
to  work  with  their  content,  but  to  work  with  every 
content.  They  have  far-reaching  effects  —  they 
enable  us  to  do  everything  we  undertake  better 
because  we  have  pursued  them.  Much  of  our  learn- 
ing we  must  get  at  retail,  acquiring  it  painfully 
process  by  process  and  never  getting  any  more  than 
we  bargain  for,  and  mostly  less.  I  have  never 
heard  teachers  of  history,  for  example,  say  that 
studying  history  teaches  anything  but  history,  or 
teachers  of  Spanish  that  studying  Spanish  teaches 
anything  but  Spanish.  Just  recently  we  have  heard 
from  eminent  physical  trainers  that  military  training 


100  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

teaches  military  training  and  contributes  nothing 
that  makes  for  bodily  well-being,  but  much  that 
harms  it.  But  I  have  heard  teachers  of  Greek  and 
Latin  and  French  and  German  say  that  the  study  of 
their  subjects  is  not  intended  to  teach  Greek  or 
Latin  or  French  or  German.  The  study  of  their 
subjects  is  intended  to  improve  the  faculties  of  the 
mind.  They  claim  to  educate  by  wholesale,  to  give 
instruction  in  preferred  subjects.  They  do  not  set 
out  to  teach  their  students  the  subjects  which  they 
study;  they  teach  them,  they  say,  something  far 
more  valuable.  There  are  many  variants  of  this 
claim  and  as  nearly  as  I  can  discover  no  one  knows 
exactly  what  they  mean.  I  heard  one  man  say  in  a 
discussion  a  while  ago  that  he  took  it  as  established 
that  we  must  sharpen  an  ax  on  some  other  material 
than  that  which  we  proposed  to  cut  with  it,  likening 
the  mind  to  an  ax  and  the  studies  which  he  espoused 
to  a  grindstone ;  but  the  mind  which  God  gave  us  is 
a  pretty  sharp  instrument  from  the  beginning,  and 
we  do  not  need  to  .get  inside  it  to  do  any  burnishing 
or  repair  work  there. 

I  find  in  Professor  Keyser's  interesting  discussion 
of  mathematics  x  some  statements  which  are  puzzling 
and  very  hard  to  make  out.  He  says : 

The  science  is  no  catholicon  for  mental  disease.  There  is  no 
power  for  transforming  mediocrity  into  genius.  It  can  not 
enrich  where  nature  has  impoverished.  It  makes  no  pretense  of 
creating  faculty  where  none  exists,  of  opening  springs  in  desert 
minds.  .  .  .  The  great  mathematician,  like  the  great  poet  or 
the  great  administrator,  is  born.  My  contention  shall  be  that 
where  the  mathematic  endowment  is  found  there  will  usually 

1  Keyser,  Mathematics,  Columbia  University  Press,  New  York,  1907. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          101 

be  found  associated  with  it,  as  essential  implications  of  it,  other 
endowments  in  generous  measure,  and  that  the  appeal  of  the 
science  is  to  the  whole  mind,  direct  no  doubt  to  the  central 
powers  of  thought,  but  indirectly  through  sympathy  of  all, 
rousing,  enlarging,  developing,  emancipating  all,  so  that  the 
faculties  of  will,  of  intellect  and  feeling  learn  to  respond,  each 
in  its  appropriate  order  and  degree,  like  the  parts  of  an  orchestra 
to  the  "urge  and  ardor"  of  its  leader  and  lord. 

If  the  study  of  mathematics  can  do  that  or  any- 
thing like  that  it  is  clear  that  we  must  all  study 
mathematics,  for  though  many  of  us  have  little 
occasion  to  use  more  than  the  merest  elements  of  this 
great  science,  we  all  want  our  minds  aroused,  en- 
larged, developed  and  emancipated  so  that  the 
faculties  of  will  and  intellect  and  feeling  will  respond. 
But  is  Professor  Keyser  not  claiming  too  much  ?  If 
mathematics  could  indeed  do  these  things  would  it 
not  be  the  philosophers'  stone?  And  if  it  can  do 
these  things  I  trust  it  will  not  be  thought  im- 
pertinent to  ask  why  it  has  not  done  them.  Surely 
no  greater  harm  can  be  done  to  any  science  than  to 
overestimate  its  claims  and  mistake  its  nature,  and  no 
greater  harm  can  be  done  to  the  young  than  to  submit 
them  to  a  laborious  and  time-consuming  discipline 
if  we  are  not  certain  that  that  discipline  can  accom- 
plish what  we  claim  that  it  can  accomplish. 

Let  us  stop  long  enough  to  understand  each  other. 
The  question  which  we  are  to  consider  is  not  the 
question  of  the  value  of  mathematics  —  nobody 
doubts  its  value  to  any  one  who  has  occasion  to  use  it. 
The  question  we  are  to  consider  is  whether  it  is  to 
be  regarded  as  unlike  other  studies  which  are  valuable 
to  those  who  use  them  and  not  of  much  account  to 


102  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

those  who  do  not,  but  is  instead  a  preferred  study 
which  is  to  be  pursued  not  for  the  sake  of  what  we 
can  do  with  it,  but  for  the  sake  of  what  it  will  do  to 
us.  The  value  of  mathematics  as  a  tool,  a  human 
device  for  doing  its  part  of  the  work  of  the  world,  is 
not  disputed  —  it  never  has  been.  The  value  of 
mathematics  as  a  universal  discipline  is  not  proven ; 
it  is  disputed.  Does  learning  mathematics  teach 
mathematics  as  Robert  Browning  said  that  "learning 
Greek  teaches  Greek  and  nothing  else;  certainly 
not  common  sense  if  that  have  failed  to  precede  the 
teaching"?  Or  does  learning  mathematics  teach 
reasoning  in  general,  not  to  say  anything  of  its 
power  to  arouse,  enlarge,  develop,  and  emancipate 
the  faculties  of  will  and  feeling  ? 

If  we  go  back  to  the  Greeks  who  invented  this  great 
science,  we  find  them  taking  pains  to  put  limits  to 
their  reliance  upon  it.  In  the  "Memorabilia"  of 
Xenophon  we  are  told  that  Socrates  had  very  decided 
views  as  to  the  value  of  geometry. 

Every  one  (he  would  say)  ought  to  be  taught  geometry  so  far, 
at  any  rate,  as  to  be  able,  if  necessary,  to  take  over  or  part  with 
a  piece  of  land,  or  to  divide  it  up  or  assign  a  portion  for  cultiva- 
tion, and  in  every  case  by  geometric  rule.  That  amount  of 
geometry  was  so  simple  indeed  and  easy  to  learn,  that  it  only 
needed  ordinary  application  of  the  mind  to  the  method  of  men- 
suration, and  the  student  could  at  once  ascertain  the  size  of  the 
piece  of  land,  and  with  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  its  measure- 
ment depart  in  peace.  But  he  was  unable  to  approve  of  the 
pursuit  of  geometry  up  to  the  point  at  which  it  became  a  study  of 
unintelligible  diagrams.  What  the  use  of  these  might  be  he 
failed,  he  said,  to  see;  and  yet  he  was  not  unversed  in  these 
recondite  matters  himself.  These  things,  he  would  say,  were 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          103 

enough  to  wear  out  a  man's  life  and  to  hinder  him  from  many 
more  useful  studies.  .  .  .  Socrates  inculcated  the  study  of 
reasoning  processes,  but  in  these  equally  with  the  rest,  he  bade 
the  student  beware  of  vain  and  idle  over-occupation.  Up  to  the 
limit  set  by  utility  he  was  ready  to  join  in  any  investigation  and 
to  follow  out  an  argument  with  those  who  were  with  him ;  but 
there  he  stopped.1 

This  passage  is  thoroughly  in  keeping  with 
Cleanthes's  statement  that  Socrates  cursed  as 
impious  "him  who  first  sundered  the  just  from  the 
useful."  Socrates's  disciple,  Plato,  made  a  larger  use 
of  mathematics  in  the  course  of  study  which  he 
outlined  for  the  few  selected  youths  whom  he  pro- 
posed to  train  to  be  philosopher-kings  in  the  Republic 
of  his  vision.  You  will  remember  that  he  prescribed 
for  them  a  ten-years'  course  in  arithmetic,  geometry, 
astronomy  and  music,  because  "these  studies  lead 
naturally  to  reflection,  but  seem  never  to  have  been 
rightly  used."  The  example  which  he  gives  of  the 
way  in  which  he  would  use  these  studies  shows  that  he 
did  not  rely  upon  such  a  knowledge  of  them  as  our 
students  are  invited  to  get  to  lead  his  disciples  to 
reflection. 

When  there  is  some  contradiction  always  present  and  one  is  the 
reverse  of  one  and  involves  the  conception  of  plurality,  then 
thought  begins  to  be  aroused  within  us  and  the  soul,  per- 
plexed and  wanting  to  arrive  at  a  decision,  asks:  "What  is 
absolute  unity?"  This  is  the  way  in  which  the  study  of  the 
one  has  a  power  of  drawing  and  converting  the  mind  to  the 
contemplation  of  true  being.  You  are  right,  he  said,  the 
observation  of  the  unit  does  certainly  possess  this  property  in  no 
common  degree,  for  the  same  thing  presents  at  the  same  moment 
the  appearance  of  one  thing  and  an  infinity  of  things.2 

1  Xenophon,  Memorabilia,  IV,  7.         2  Republic,  524  and  525. 


104  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Plato's  study  of  arithmetic  is  undertaken  to 
consider  the  nature  of  numbers,  and  his  geometry, 
the  nature  of  space.  It  is  intended  to  lead  the  student 
to  discover  the  reality  of  mind,  to  know  himself  the 
thinker,  not  the  science  of  mathematics.  Will  ten 
years  of  such  study  give  him  a  trained  mind  ?  These 
studies  he  says  are 

useful,  that  is,  if  sought  after  with  a  view  to  the  beautiful  and 
good ;  but  if  pursued  in  any  other  spirit,  useless.  .  .  .  Do  you 
not  know  that  this  is  only  the  prelude  of  the  actual  strain  which 
we  have  to  learn  ?  For  you  surely  would  not  regard  the  skilled 
mathematician  as  a  dialectician?  Assuredly  not,  he  said.  I 
have  hardly  ever  known  a  mathematician  who  was  capable  of 
reasoning. 

We  find  Aristotle,  too,  declaring  that 

the  man  of  education  will  seek  exactness  so  far  in  each  subject 
as  the  nature  of  the  thing  admits,  it  being  plainly  much  the  same 
absurdity  to  put  up  with  a  mathematician  who  tries  to  persuade 
instead  of  proving,  and  to  demand  strict  demonstrative  reasoning 
of  a  rhetorician.  Now  each  man  judges  well  what  he  knows  and 
of  these  things  he  is  a  good  judge  :  on  each  particular  matter  he 
is  a  good  judge  who  has  been  instructed  in  it,  and  in  a  general 
way  the  man  of  general  cultivation.1 

But  this  general  cultivation  is  to  be  gotten  by  famil- 
iarity with  many  subjects,  not  from  the  study  of  any 
one  subject. 

The  capacity  of  receiving  knowledge  is  modified  by  the  habits 
of  the  recipient  mind.  For  as  we  have  been  habituated  to  learn, 
do  we  deem  that  everything  ought  to  be  taught,  and  the  same 
object,  presented  in  an  unfamiliar  manner,  strikes  us  not  only 
as  unlike  itself,  but  from  want  of  custom  as  comparatively 
strange  and  unknown.  .  .  .  We  ought  therefore  to  be  educated 

1  Ethics,  10946. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS         105 

to  the  different  modes  and  amount  of  evidence  which  the 
different  objects  of  our  knowledge  admit.1 

There  is  no  recognition  of  mathematics  as  teach- 
ing more  than  mathematics  here.  These  Greeks  do 
not  rely  upon  it  as  a  training  in  universal  reasoning. 

No  such  claim  is  made  for  the  study  until  the 
faculty  psychology  brought  faculty  education  in  its 
train  some  time  about  the  beginning  of  the  18th 
century.  Faculty  psychology  is  everywhere  recog- 
nized as  false  doctrine  since  the  criticism  of  Herbart 
gave  it  its  deathblow  in  the  early  years  of  the 
19th  century.  But  faculty  education  still  remains, 
though  the  psychologists  tell  us  that  there  are  no 
faculties  to  be  educated.  This  of  itself  is  a  curious 
commentary  upon  the  unscientific  character  of  our 
education. 

But  before  I  consider  the  claim  that  mathe- 
matics trains  the  faculty  of  reasoning  I  want  to 
point  out  that  there  have  from  its  first  appear- 
ance as  a  philosophy  of  education  been  almost  or 
quite  as  many  competent  critics  of  this  doctrine  as 
upholders  of  it.  I  trust  I  shall  not  unduly  tax  your 
patience  if  I  refer  to  that  remarkable  article  "  On  the 
Study  of  Mathematics  as  an  Exercise  of  Mind," 
which  Sir  William  Hamilton  published  in  1836.  Pro- 
fessor Keyser  calls  it  "Sir  William  Hamilton's 
famous  and  terrific  diatribe  against  the  science," 
but  opinions  of  mathematicians  seem  to  differ  about 
it,  for  Professor  Young  finds  it  instructive  to  the 
teacher  of  mathematics  and  regards  it  as  "a  pity 
that  more  such  criticisms  are  not  made."  Whatever 

1  Metaphysics,  II,  3. 


106  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

else  Sir  William  Hamilton's  essay  may  be,  it  is  not  a 
diatribe  against  the  science  of  mathematics.  He  says 
expressly : 

In  the  first  place  that  the  question  does  not  regard  the  value  of 
mathematical  science  considered  in  itself,  or  in  its  objective  results, 
but  the  utility  of  mathematical  study,  that  is,  in  its  subjective 
effect,  as  an  exercise  of  mind;  and  in  the  second,  that  the 
expediency  is  not  disputed,  of  leaving  mathematics  as  a  coor- 
dinate, to  find  their  level  among  the  other  branches  of  academical 
instruction.  It  is  only  contended  that  they  ought  not  to  be 
made  the  principal,  far  less  the  exclusive  object  of  academical 
encouragement.  We  speak  not  now  of  professional  but  of  liberal 
education ;  not  of  that  which  considers  the  mind  as  an  instrument 
for  the  improvement  of  science,  but  of  this  which  considers 
science  as  an  instrument  for  the  improvement  of  mind.  Of  all 
our  intellectual  pursuits  the  study  of  the  mathematical  sciences 
is  the  one  whose  utility  as  an  intellectual  exercise  when  carried 
beyond  a  moderate  extent  has  been  most  peremptorily  denied 
by  the  greatest  number  of  the  most  competent  judges ;  and  the 
arguments  on  which  this  opinion  is  established  have  hitherto  been 
evaded  rather  than  opposed. 

If  any  one  has  any  doubt  about  the  number  of 
opinions  which  he  musters  to  support  his  contention 
"that  the  tendency  of  a  too  exclusive  study  of  these 
sciences  is  absolutely  to  disqualify  the  mind  for 
observation  and  common  reasoning, "  he  has  only  to 
consult  the  article  to  learn  how  numerous  they  are. 
And  I  do  not  think  it  is  fair  to  refute  this  article  by 
ascribing  it  to  "jealousy,  vanity  and  parade  of  learn- 
ing," or  to  set  it  aside  by  declaring  "that  Hamilton 
by  studied  selections  and  omissions  deliberately  and 
maliciously  misrepresented  the  great  authors  from 
whoin  he  quoted  —  d'Alembert,  Blaise  Pascal,  Des- 
cartes and  others,  distorting  their  express  and  un- 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          107 

mistakable  meaning,  even  to  the  extent  of  complete 
inversion."  *  It  is  easy  to  make  charges  against  men 
who  quote.  That  is  a  familiar  line  of  attack.  They 
can  be  charged  with  quoting  what  they  should  not 
have  quoted,  or  with  not  quoting  what  they  should 
have  quoted.  Such  charges  divert  attention  from 
what  one  has  quoted  but  they  do  not  answer  it. 
The  question  is  not  whether  Sir  William  Hamilton 
quotes  less  than  there  is  to  quote  —  every  one  who 
quotes  at  all,  selects  what  he  will  quote  —  and  the 
question  is  not  whether  the  statement  which  he 
quotes  in  any  given  case  is  the  average  statement  of 
its  author  upon  the  subject  or  the  final  result  of  a 
lifelong  consideration  of  it.  These  men  may  have 
said  other  things  at  other  times  and  in  other  places. 
They  could  hardly  have  been  mathematicians  with- 
out doing  so.  The  question  is  whether  they  also  at 
any  time  or  in  any  place  said  what  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton quotes  them  as  saying.  Did  d'Alembert  ever 
say  "we  shall  content  ourselves  with  the  remark 
that  if  mathematics  (as  is  asserted  with  sufficient 
reason)  only  make  straight  the  minds  which  are 
without  a  bias,  so  they  only  dry  up  and  chill  the 
minds  already  prepared  for  this  operation  by 
nature."  2  It  is  plain  that  if  he  contented  himself 
with  that  remark,  we  must  be  contented  with  that 
remark  as  coming  from  him.  And  did  Descartes 
say  that  "the  study  of  mathematics  principally  exer- 
cises the  imagination  in  the  consideration  of  figures 

1  Keyser,  "  Mathematics,"  pp.  23,  24,  Columbia  University  Press, 
1907. 

8  "  Melanges,"  IV,  p.  184,  1763. 


108  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

and  motions  "  1  and  to  another  correspondent  "that 
part  of  the  mind,  to  wit  the  imagination  which  is 
principally  conducive  to  a  skill  in  mathematics,  is  of 
greater  detriment  than  service  for  metaphysical 
speculations," 2  and  did  Descartes's  biographer, 
Baillet,  write: 

It  was  now  a  long  time  since  he  had  been  convinced  of  the  small 
utility  of  the  mathematics,  especially  when  studied  on  their  own 
account,  and  not  applied  to  other  things.  There  was  nothing  in 
truth  which  appeared  to  him  more  futile  than  to  occupy  our- 
selves with  simple  numbers  and  imaginary  figures,  as  if  it  were 
proper  to  confine  ourselves  to  these  trifles  without  carrying  our 
view  beyond.  There  even  seemed  to  him  in  this  something 
worse  than  useless.  His  maxim  was  that  such  application  in- 
sensibly disaccustomed  us  to  the  use  of  our  reason  and  made  us 
run  the  danger  of  losing  the  path  which  it  traces. 

And  does  his  Life  contain  the  statement  that  in 
a  letter  to  Mersenne,  written  in  1630 : 

M.  Descartes  recalled  to  him  that  he  had  renounced  the  study 
of  mathematics  for  many  years ;  and  that  he  was  anxious  not  to 
lose  any  more  of  his  time  in  the  barren  operations  of  geometry  and 
arithmetic,  studies  which  never  led  to  anything  important. 

And  does  the  author  of  Descartes's  life  in  a  later 
passage  say  "in  regard  to  the  rest  of  mathematics'* 
(he  has  just  been  speaking  of  astronomy) 

those  who  know  the  rank  which  he  held  above  all  mathe- 
maticians, ancient  and  modern,  will  agree  that  he  was  the  man 
in  the  world  best  qualified  to  judge  them.  We  have  observed 
that  after  having  studied  these  sciences  to  the  bottom,  he  had 
renounced  them  as  of  no  use  for  the  conduct  of  life  and  solace 
of  mankind.3 

1"Lettres,"  pp.  i-xxx.  '"Epist.,"  pp.  ii-xxxiii. 

1  "La  Vie  de  Descartes,"  I,  pp.  Ill,  112,  225. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          109 

It  is  no  answer  to  such  citations  to  make  a  great  bluster 
about  other  statements  which  might  have  been 
quoted  and  to  draw  back  from  these  as  though  it  were 
a  profanation  even  to  think  of  them.  The  question 
which  must  be  faced  is :  Did  d'Alembert  and  Des- 
cartes and  Descartes's  biographer  ever  at  any  time 
say  these  things  ?  The  one  legitimate  way  to  attack 
Sir  William  Hamilton's  use  of  them  as  evidence  is  to 
deny  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  these 
men.  That  denial  is  not  made  and  can  not  be  made. 
These  are  statements  which  d'Alembert,  Descartes 
and  Descartes's  biographer  made,  and  made  in  words 
which  mean  exactly  what  we  have  indicated,  and 
must  be  reckoned  with. 

The  passage  which  is  quoted  from  Pascal  is 
quoted  at  length.  In  it  Pascal  says : 

There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  spirit  of  mathematics 
and  the  spirit  of  observation.  In  the  former  the  principles  are 
palpable  but  remote  from  common  use;  so  that  from  want  of 
custom  it  is  not  easy  to  turn  our  head  in  that  direction ;  but  if  it 
be  turned  ever  so  little,  the  principles  are  seen  fully  confessed, 
and  it  would  argue  a  mind  incorrigibly  false  to  reason  in- 
consequently  on  principles  so  obtrusive  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  overlook  them.  But  in  the  field  of  observation,  the  principles 
are  in  common  use  and  before  the  eyes  of  all.  We  need  not 
turn  our  heads,  to  make  any  effort  whatsoever.  Nothing  is 
wanted  beyond  a  good  sight;  but  good  it  must  be;  for  the 
principles  are  so  minute  and  numerous  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
but  some  of  them  should  escape.  The  omission,  however,  of 
a  single  principle  leads  to  error ;  it  is,  therefore,  requisite  to  have 
a  sight  of  the  clearest  to  discern  all  the  principles;  and  then  a 
correct  intellect  to  avoid  false  reasonings  on  known  principles. 
All  mathematicians  would,  thus,  be  observant  had  they  good 
sight,  for  they  do  not  reason  falsely  on  the  principles  they  know ; 


110  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

and  minds  of  observation  would  be  mathematical  could  they 
turn  their  view  toward  the  unfamiliar  principles  of  mathematics. 
The  cause  why  certain  observant  minds  are  not  mathematical  is 
because  they  are  wholly  unable  to  turn  themselves  toward  the 
principles  of  mathematics ;  but  the  reason  why  there  are  mathe- 
maticians void  of  observation  is  that  they  do  not  see  what  lies 
before  them,  and  that  accustomed  to  the  clear  and  palpable 
principles  of  mathematics  and  only  to  reason  after  these  principles 
have  been  well  seen  and  handled  they  lose  themselves  in  matters 
of  observation  where  the  principles  do  not  allow  of  being  thus 
treated.  These  objects  are  seen  with  difficulty;  nay,  are  felt 
rather  than  seen,  and  it  is  with  infinite  pains  that  others  can  be 
made  to  feel  them  if  they  have  not  already  felt  them  without  aid. 
They  are  so  delicate  and  numerous  that  to  be  felt  they  require  a 
very  fine  and  a  very  clear  sense.  They  can  also  seldom  be 
demonstrated  in  succession  as  is  done  in  mathematics,  for  we 
are  not  in  possession  of  their  principles,  while  the  very  attempt 
would  of  itself  be  endless.  The  object  must  be  discovered  at 
once  by  a  single  glance  and  not  by  a  course  of  reasoning,  at  least 
up  to  a  certain  point.  Thus  it  is  rare  that  mathematicians  are 
observant  and  that  observant  minds  are  mathematical ;  because 
mathematicians  would  treat  matters  of  observation  by  rule  of 
mathematics,  and  make  themselves  ridiculous  by  attempting  to 
commence  by  definitions  and  by  principles,  a  mode  of  procedure 
incompatible  with  this  kind  of  reasoning.1 

But  Sir  William  Hamilton  is  not  satisfied  with  this 
showing  that  in  learning  mathematics  we  do  not  learn 
to  reason  about  all  things,  but  only  about  mathe- 
matics ;  he  quotes  from  scores  of  other  persons  to  the 
same  effect.  His  argument  is  not  met  by  Professor 
Young's  statement,  that  as  mathematics  was  then 
taught  the  subject  had,  as  Sir  William  Hamilton 
contended,  but  small  value,  "but  mathematics  is  no 
longer  taught  as  a  purely  passive  subject  to-day." 

1  "  Pens6es  de  Pascal,"  p.  1,  Article  X. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS         111 

That  may  be  true  and  it  is  good  news  if  it  is  true,  but 
Sir  William's  point  is  that  mathematics  can  not  be 
taught  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  the  student  who 
has  studied  it,  no  matter  now  diligently,  to  reason 
well  about  everything.  Its  lessons  have  no  such 
universal  reference  and  its  methods  of  reasoning  no 
such  universal  applicability.  The  reasoning  which 
life  exacts  of  us  is  upon  contingent  matter,  the 
reasoning  to  which  mathematics  habituates  us  is 
upon  necessary  matter.  In  mathematics  the  prem- 
ises are  given ;  in  life  for  the  most  part  they  must  be 
found.  The  question  we  try  to  answer  in  mathe- 
matics is  what  conclusions  follow  from  these  prem- 
ises; the  question  we  are  forced  to  answer  in  life 
is,  of  what  principle  is  this  case  an  instance  or  under 
what  principle  does  this  particular  belong. 

The  case  against  mathematics,  not  as  a  science 
but  as  a  universal  trainer  of  the  mind,  has  become 
very  much  stronger  since  1836  than  it  was  in  Sir 
William  Hamilton's  brilliant  summary  of  it.  To  the 
crowd  of  witnesses  whom  he  summoned,  the  names  of 
Huxley  and  Comte  and  many  another  leader  of 
human  thought  must  now  be  added.  The  break- 
down and  abandonment  of  the  faculty  psychology 
left  the  doctrine  of  faculty  education  literally  with- 
out a  leg  to  stand  on.  If  instead  of  one  memory  we 
have  as  many  memories  as  the  things  we  remember, 
we  can  not  train  or  develop  the  memory,  for  there  is 
none  to  train.  If  our  nature  is  so  economical  that 
we  forget  all  the  things  which  we  have  no  occasion  to 
remember  and  remember  only  those  things  in  which 
we  have  taken  a  lively  interest  or  about  which  we 


112 

have  built  up  a  net  of  associations,  then  the  way  to 
develop  one's  memory  is  to  make  no  effort  to  develop 
it,  but  to  spend  one's  strength  instead  in  finding 
reasons  for  being  interested  in  the  thing  which  we 
want  to  remember.  Let  the  memory  alone,  take  no 
memory-training  lessons,  give  up  forever  the  notion 
that  a  memory  ever  existed  outside  of  the  world  of 
fancy  which  could  remember  all  things  equally  well, 
let  the  memory  alone  and  give  your  whole  attention 
to  comprehending  what  you  want  to  remember. 
That  is  all  that  you  or  any  one  else  can  do.  This, 
you  see,  requires  us  to  shift  our  attention  wholly 
from  the  mind  to  the  content. 

The  same  criticism  applies  to  the  training  of  the 
reason.  No  such  faculty  exists.  We  reason  well 
about  one  interest  and  badly  about  another.  Such  a 
thing  as  an  all-round  reasoner  is  not  to  be  found. 
The  agriculturalist  reasons  well  about  growing  crops, 
the  commission  merchant  knows  more  about  how  to 
sell  them.  The  geologist  reasons  well  about  rocks, 
the  biologist  about  vital  processes,  the  lawyer  about 
laws,  the  engineer  about  the  strength  of  materials, 
the  physician  about  diseases,  and  the  tax  expert 
about  the  incidents  of  taxation.  The  United  States 
wants  150,000  ship  carpenters.  House  carpenters 
will  not  do.  We  are  specialists  all.  The  study  of 
mathematics  makes  a  specialist  out  of  the  man  who 
pursues  it  as  his  life  work.  How  can  the  same  study 
that  makes  specialists  out  of  adults  make  generalists 
out  of  the  young  ?  When  we  study  mathematics  we 
learn  to  make  analyses,  but  to  analyze  the  mathe- 
matical given  is  not  the  same  thing,  nor  even  the 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          113 

same  sort  of  thing,  as  to  resolve  an  economic  situation 
into  its  constituent  elements,  or  a  historical  period 
into  the  forces  which  are  operating  in  it,  or  a  crime 
into  the  factors  which  indicate  its  authorship. 
There  are  many  forms  of  analysis,  and  only  the  man 
who  is  familiar  with  a  given  subject  matter  can 
resolve  it  into  its  parts.  The  same  thing  is  true  of 
inferences  and  of  the  tracing  of  relations.  The  type 
of  analysis  or  inference  which  is  valid  in  one  field 
is  not  valid  in  another.  The  universe  of  facts  is  no 
snug-fitting  box  with  interchangeable  parts  which  we 
can  put  together  and  take  apart  in  a  few  well- 
defined  ways.  It  is  infinitely  complex,  and  he  who  is 
being  trained  to  operate  any  part  of  it  must  be 
familiar  with  the  characteristics  of  his  particular 
field  of  fact  and  the  processes  of  manipulation  which 
belong  to  it.  Says  Professor  Dewey,  in  speaking  of 
the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline : 

Going  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  the  fundamental  fallacy 
of  the  theory  is  its  dualism ;  that  is  to  say,  its  separation 
of  activities  and  capacities  from  subject  matter.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  ability  to  see  or  hear  or  remember  in  general ; 
there  is  only  the  ability  to  see  or  hear  or  remember  some- 
thing. To  talk  about  training  a  power,  mental  or  physical, 
in  general,  apart  from  the  subject  matter  involved  in  its  exer- 
cise, is  nonsense. 

If  we  turn  to  the  experimental  studies  which  have 
been  made  upon  this  subject,  we  must  note  that  they 
were  not  undertaken  to  inquire  whether  the  memory, 
or  the  imagination,  or  the  observation,  or  the  reason 
can  be  trained  as  a  faculty.  No  one  who  is  at  all 
conversant  with  modern  psychology  takes  that 


114  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

question  with  any  seriousness  whatever.  Any  in- 
vestigation of  it  would  be  a  mere  waste  of  time. 

Since  the  psychologists  agree  that  we  have  a 
different  memory  for  everything  we  remember,  a 
different  attention  for  everything  to  which  we  attend, 
a  different  imagination  for  everything  we  imagine, 
and  a  different  reasoning  for  everything  we  reason 
about,  why  should  there  be  any  investigation  to  find 
out  to  what  extent  learning  to  do  one  thing  will 
help  us  to  do  another?  The  answer  is  that  though 
our  acts  are  different,  some  of  them  have  common 
elements  and  call  forth  identical  responses.  If  we 
learn  to  count  marbles,  we  can  count  eggs,  for  the 
act  is  the  same  in  both  cases,  but  it  does  not  follow 
that  if  we  learn  to  count  objects  we  can  count  ab- 
stractions ;  that  is  a  new  art  and  must  be  learned, 
nor  does  it  follow  that  if  we  can  count  abstractions, 
we  can  successfully  number  objects.  There  is  a 
great  gulf  fixed  between  theoretical  and  practical 
arithmetic  and  between  theoretical  and  practical 
mathematics  throughout.  A  banker  friend  of  mine 
declares  that  counting  money  in  a  large  bank  is  so 
different  from  counting  money  in  a  small  bank  that 
city  banks  hesitate  to  employ  as  assistants  men  who 
have  been  trained  in  country  banks.  There  is  much 
that  is  common  to  the  two  processes,  but  there  is  at 
the  same  time  so  much  that  is  different  that  training 
in  one  does  not  prepare  for  the  other. 

One  who  learns  to  drive  a  Packard  car  can  drive 
a  Stanley  steamer  —  that  is,  he  can  steer  it,  for  he 
is  only  doing  over  again  what  he  has  already  learned 
to  do  —  but  one  who  can  adjust  a  Packard  engine 


THE   STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          115 

can  not  adjust  the  engine  in  a  Stanley  steamer  with- 
out a  special  knowledge  of  that  engine. 

The  ability  to  use  the  knowledge  which  we  have 
acquired  in  one  connection  in  another  is  sometimes 
said  to  be  due  to  a  transfer  of  training.  Professor 
Dewey  tells  us  that  "in  the  literal  sense  any  transfer 
is  miraculous  and  impossible."  What  then  does  the 
transfer  which  is  said  to  take  place  really  mean? 
Learning  to  drive  a  Packard  car  enables  one  to  drive  a 
Stanley  steamer,  because  when  we  drive  the  steamer 
we  are  simply  doing  over  again  what  we  have  already 
learned  to  do.  Nothing  is  transferred;  instead,  an 
act  we  have  already  learned  to  perform  is  repeated 
in  a  context  very  like  the  context  in  which  it  was 
learned.  If  we  could  transfer  our  training  from 
one  context  to  another  quite  freely,  we  would  not  go 
on  merely  repeating  what  we  have  already  learned. 
We  would  all  become  inventors.  The  fact  that 
inventions  are  and  always  have  been  so  rare  shows 
quite  clearly  that  we  do  not  do  that.  We  do  over 
and  over  again  what  we  have  already  learned  to  do ; 
but  within  what  limits  do  we  repeat  our  familiar 
reactions?  That  is  the  question  which  the  experi- 
mentalists are  answering  and  their  answers  all  show 
that  the  limits  go  but  a  little  way  beyond  the  lesson 
itself  and  that  the  range  of  its  application  is  very 
narrow  indeed. 

Some  of  these  experiments  seek  to  determine  the 
effects  of  training  in  mathematics  upon  the  perform- 
ance of  other  kinds  of  work.  One  of  them  is  the  series 
of  tests  conducted  by  Lewis  at  Dartmouth.  Two 
test  papers  were  prepared,  one  containing  three 


116  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

originals  in  geometry,  the  other  three  questions  in 
practical  reasoning  concerning  the  value  of  high- 
school  education  to  the  student  and  the  community. 
Both  papers  were  submitted  to  twenty-four  different 
groups  of  high-school  students.  The  results  I  give  in 
Mr.  Lewis's  own  words  : 

If  we  take  the  first  five  mathematical  reasoners  from  each  of  the 
24  groups,  we  have  in  all  one  hundred  and  twenty  pupils  most 
excellent  in  mathematical  reasoning.  Of  this  number  76  or  63 
per  cent  are  at  the  foot  of  the  practical  reasoning  series,  con- 
spicuous for  their  inefficiency  in  practical  reasoning.  Of  the 
number  of  pupils  at  the  foot  of  the  mathematical  reasoning 
series,  57  or  47  per  cent  are  conspicuous  for  their  positions  at 
the  head  of  the  practical  reasoning  series. 

To  supplement  this  test  the  records  of  Dartmouth 
students  in  the  classes  in  mathematics  and  in  courses 
in  law  were  compared.  The  results  were  much  the 
same. 

Fifty  per  cent  of  the  best  students  in  law  were  conspicuous  for 
their  poor  showing  in  mathematics  and  42  per  cent  of  those 
poorest  in  law  stood  at  the  head  of  the  series  in  mathematics. 

More  recently  at  the  University  of  Illinois  Dr. 
Rugg  conducted  a  classroom  experiment  in  which 
two  groups,  one  of  413  and  the  other  of  87  college 
students,  were  first  measured  for  efficiency  in  the 
mental  manipulation  of  spatial  elements.  The  first 
group  of  413  students  then  took  a  regular  course  in 
descriptive  geometry  during  a  college  semester  of  15 
weeks.  The  other  group  of  87  college  students  had 
no  such  training  during  this  interval.  At  the  end 
of  the  15  weeks  both  groups  were  again  measured  as 
they  had  been  at  the  beginning  to  discover  the  effect 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          117 

of  the  course  in  descriptive  geometry  which  the  one 
group  had  taken  and  the  other  had  not,  upon  specific 
abilities  in  the  mental  manipulation  of  spatial  ele- 
ments, (a)  of  a  strictly  geometrical  type;  (6)  of  a 
quasi-geometrical  type ;  and  (c)  of  a  non-geometrical 
type.  What  was  the  result  ?  Members  of  both  the 
trained  and  the  untrained  group  showed  improvement 
in  taking  the  test  series  a  second  time.  But  there 
were  44  per  cent  more  gainers  in  speed  in  the  trained 
group  than  in  the  untrained,  and  nearly  two  thirds 
again  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  trained  group  as 
of  the  untrained  group  gained  in  accuracy.  Of  the 
group  that  had  the  training  not  all  gained,  and  of  the 
group  that  did  not  have  the  training  a  very  large 
number  gained  as  much  as  those  who  had  had  it. 
How  many  individuals  gained? 

In  "Attempts"  67.8  per  cent  of  the  training  group  and  42.5 
per  cent  of  the  control  group  gain  in  60  per  cent  or  more  of  the 
tests  taken. 

That  is,  42ij  folks  out  of  every  hundred  who  did 
not  have  the  training  took  the  tests  as  successfully 
as  68  out  of  every  hundred  who  did  have  it.  That  is, 
the  course  seems  to  have  been  of  some  positive  assist- 
ance in  preparing  only  25£  folks  out  of  each  hundred 
to  take  the  test.  To  32  out  of  every  hundred  who 
took  it,  it  was  no  help,  and  42£  of  every  hundred  who 
took  it  got  on  just  as  well  without  it  as  with  it,  that 
is,  so  far  as  attempts  went. 

In  "Rights"  72.7  per  cent  of  the  training  group  and  31  per 
cent  of  the  control  group  gain  in  60  per  cent  or  more  of  the  tests 
taken. 


118  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

If  72.7  per  cent  who  took  the  training  gained,  we 
may  conclude  that  27  out  of  every  hundred  who  took 
it  did  not  gain,  and  as  31  per  cent  of  those  who  did 
not  have  it  did  as  well  as  those  who  did  have  it,  only 
42  out  of  every  hundred  became  more  accurate  be- 
cause of  it,  while  58  did  not ;  thus  you  see  the  chances 
seem  to  be  about  6  to  4  against  expecting  anything 
in  the  way  of  general  training,  that  is,  training  which 
is  not  strictly  specific,  from  such  a  course.  On  Dr. 
Rugg's  showing,  the  dice  are  loaded  against  every 
student  who  takes  this  course  for  general  training. 

It  is  true,  as  he  points  out,  that  more  of  those  who 
took  the  training  gained  than  of  those  who  did  not, 
but  a  considerable  number  of  those  who  took  it  did 
not  gain,  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  those 
who  did  not  take  it  gained.  So  to  gain  it  is  not 
necessary  to  take  it,  and  if  one  does  take  it,  there  is 
no  certainty  that  he  will  gain. 

These  are  his  figures,  but  this  is  not  Dr.  Rugg's 
conclusion.  His  conclusion  is  that  these  results 
supply  confirmatory  evidence  of  the  "transfer  of 
training " ;  though,  as  he  says,  his  data  do  not,  of 
course,  establish  conclusively  the  possibility  of 
transfer.  It  is  not  the  possibility  of  transfer  but 
rather  the  actuality  of  transfer  that  concerns  edu- 
cators. His  results,  like  those  of  all  the  experi- 
mental studies  I  have  seen,  seem  to  me  to  assist 
materially  in  establishing  the  fact  that  we  can  not 
any  longer  make  a  philosophy  of  education  out  of 
the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline,  and  they  very 
positively  confirm  the  suspicion  with  which  any  such 
attempt  must  be  met.  The  burden  of  proof  rests 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          119 

upon  those  who  uphold  this  theory.  It  has  never 
been  proven,  and  until  it  is  proven,  it  is  mere  conjec- 
ture, wholly  insufficient  as  a  theory  of  instruction. 

Education  is  too  serious  a  business  to  be  allowed  to 
proceed  upon  chances  which  are  mathematically 
known  to  be  against  the  student.  Some  of  those 
who  have  investigated  the  question  whether  training 
is  transferred  declare  that  it  is  not.  Some  affirm 
that  under  certain  conditions  it  is  sometimes  and  in 
some  degree;  but  even  when  they  declare  that  it  is 
transferred,  the  evidence  of  transfer  is  so  inconclusive, 
and  the  amount  of  the  so-called  transfer  is  so  slight 
and  the  expectation  of  it  so  uncertain,  that  it  is  the 
part  of  wisdom  no  longer  to  build  houses  of  learning 
upon  the  shifting  sands  of  this  doctrine.  The  in- 
vestigations have  put  a  cloud  upon  the  title  of  this 
theory  of  education  which  can  not  be  removed.  It 
simply  does  not  work.  On  the  solid  rock  of  specific 
education  we  can  build  and  must  build,  for  of  the 
results  of  specific  education  we  can  be  sure,  but  as  for 
formal  or  general  discipline,  in  the  words  of  Professor 
Spearman : 

The  great  assumption  upon  which  education  has  rested  for  so 
many  centuries  is  now  at  last  rendered  amenable  to  experimental 
corroboration  —  and  it  proves  to  be  false. 


MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE 
AGAIN1 

MY  thesis  was  not  that  experiences  are  not  gen- 
eralized ;  everybody  knows  they  are  sometimes  and 
in  some  degree.  My  thesis  was  that  you  can  not 
make  a  philosophy  of  education  out  of  that.  You 
can  not  make  a  philosophy  of  education  out  of  the 
doctrine  of  formal  discipline  in  any  of  its  inter- 
pretations in  its  present  highly  unsatisfactory  con- 
dition. What  Mr.  Moore  says  seems  to  me  to  sup- 
port that  contention.  He  objects  to  reading  what 
Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Descartes,  or  Pascal  said 
about  the  teaching  of  mathematics  as  having  any 
bearing  upon  present-day  reasons  for  teaching  that 
subject.  It  is  usually  regarded  as  proper  to  inquire 
into  the  history  of  a  doctrine  whenever  its  meaning 
or  its  sufficiency  is  in  question.  There  is  special 
reason  for  calling  these  particular  men  to  testify  as 
to  the  teaching  of  mathematics  as  formal  discipline, 
for  they  are  commonly  regarded  as  the  authors  of  that 
theory.  To  show  that  they  were,  in  fact,  opposed 
to  it  is  to  locate  its  origin  in  other  and  perhaps  in 
less  worthy  quarters. 

The  manyness  of  the  opinions  cited  in  favor  of 
mathematics  as  general  discipline  in  Morwitz's 

1  A  reply  to  "The  Inadequacy  of  Arguments  against  Disciplinary 
Values"  by  Charles  N.  Moore,  School  and  Society,  Dec.  29,  1917. 

120 


MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE    121 

"Memorabilia  Mathematica "  has  little  to  do  with 
the  matter,  though  the  quality  and  effect  of  their 
authors'  reasoning  may  be  worth  considering. 

I  do  not  think  Mr.  Moore  read  far  enough  in 
Comte's  "Positive  Philosophy"  to  get  Comte's 
point  of  view.  I  commend  to  him  the  chapter  en- 
titled "Final  Estimate  of  the  Positive  Method," 
where  he  will  find  many  statements  about  mathe- 
matics, among  them  these : 

According  to  my  theory,  mathematics  necessarily  prevailed 
during  the  long  training  of  the  human  mind  to  positivism ;  and 
sociology  alone  can  guide  genuine  speculation  when  its  basis  is 
once  fully  ascertained.  .  .  .  We  have  seen  throughout  this 
work  that  mathematical  science  is  the  source  of  positivity ;  but 
we  have  also  seen  that  mathematical  conceptions  are  by  their 
nature  incapable  of  forming  a  genuine,  complete  and  universal 
philosophy.  .  .  .  The  fruitlessness  of  the  notion  is  no  evidence 
that  it  was  given  up  by  scientific  men,  who  have  still  hoped,  with 
every  accession  of  discovery,  to  find  their  mathematical  principle 
universally  applicable  at  last;  and  the  practical  effect  of  their 
persuasion  was  simply  to  prejudice  them  against  any  other 
systematic  conception,  and  even  against  any  portion  of  natural 
philosophy  which  was  too  complex  to  be  brought  under  mathe- 
matical management.  .  .  .  The  comparative  method  proper 
to  biology,  and  the  historical  method  proper  to  sociology  are  the 
two  greatest  of  logical  creations  achieved  in  the  face  of  extreme 
scientific  difficulties ;  but  the  disgraceful  ignorance  of  almost  all 
geometers  of  these  two  transcendent  methods  of  logical  investi- 
gations shows  that  it  was  not  mathematics  that  furnished 
the  conception,  though  some  examples  of  them  may  be  found  in 
mathematical  science,  fruitless  and  unintelligible  to  all  who  have 
not  derived  them  from  their  original  source.  So  much  for  the 
logical  estimate. 

As  for  the  scientific,  the  superiority  of  the  sociological  spirit 
is  no  less  evident  in  regard  to  the  universality  required.  Though 
the  geometrical  and  mechanical  point  of  view  is  universal,  in  as  far 


WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

as  that  the  laws  of  extension  and  motion  operate  in  an  elementary 
way  upon  all  phenomena  whatever,  yet,  however  valuable  may 
be  the  special  indications  thence  arising,  they  can  never  even 
in  the  simplest  cases  obviate  the  necessity  of  a  direct  study  of 
the  subject ;  and  that  direct  study  must  always  be  the  prepon- 
derant one. 

As  to  the  study  of  mathematics  having  an  effect 
when  it  is  taken  sparingly  in  youth  that  it  does  not 
have  if  persisted  in  in  age,  that  is  an  assumption 
that  has  long  puzzled  me.  I  confess  to  inability  to 
understand  how  a  study  which  makes  specialists  of 
adults  can  have  the  opposite  effect  of  making 
generalists  of  boys  and  girls.  It  seems  to  me  it 
must  have  the  same  kind  of  effect  upon  both  and 
that  what  we  mean  is  that  we  want  everybody  to 
pursue  the  special  lessons  of  mathematics  up  to  a 
certain  point  and  beyond  that  point  they  will  not 
be  useful  for  all  just  because  they  are  special  lessons. 
But  that  is  to  abandon  the  mystical  value  of  mathe- 
matics altogether,  which  the  fate" which  overtakes  the 
adult  specialist  warns  us  to  do. 

Mr.  Moore  advises  me  to  follow  Professor  Han- 
cock's example  and  collect  the  opinions  of  "prom- 
inent lawyers,  physicians,  ministers  and  men  of 
affairs,"  as  to  what  the  young  of  our  day  should 
study  and  why.  Professor  Snedden  has  already 
pointed  out  the  insufficiency  of  that  method.  It 
seems  to  me  to  employ  the  doctrine  of  general  dis- 
cipline with  a  vengeance.  How  the  opinions  of  these 
men  upon  the  study  of  mathematics  can  be  any 
better  than  their  opinions  upon  dietetics,  I  do  not 
quite  see.  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle,  at  least, 


MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE    123 

spent  their  lives  in  thinking  about  education.     There 
is  no  statute  of  limitations  against  their  work. 

Fully  ninety  per  cent  of  the  teachers  whom  I  have 
met  in  schools  and  colleges  and  nearly  one  hundred 
per  cent  of  the  parents  whom  I  have  been  privileged 
to  know  still  believe  that  young  people  attend  school 
in  order  that  the  faculties  of  their  minds  may  be 
improved  and  perfected.  It  was  folks  of  that  kind 
I  was  addressing  The  "  transf erists "  have  done 
little  to  banish  that  superstition.  It  is  time  for  them 
to  publicly  acknowledge  that  they  are  talking  about 
something  quite  different.  To  say  that  the  doctrine 
of  formal  discipline  does  not  depend  upon  the  faculty 
psychology  is  to  use  words  contrary  to  general  accep- 
tation without  defining  them  and  thereby  to  per- 
petuate and  foster  an  erroneous  conception  which 
should  long  since  have  been  rooted  from  the  popular 
mind.  In  spite  of  statements  to  the  contrary  there 
are  some  things  we  could  conceivably  do  with  facul- 
ties if  we  had  them  that  we  can  not  do  with  functions. 
If  we  still  believed  in  faculties,  we  might  insist — the 
thing  is  done  sometimes  —  that  training  a  soldier 
to  shoot  with  a  rifle  trains  him  at  the  same  time  to 
shoot  with  a  revolver,  a  trench  mortar,  a  French  75, 
to  dig  trenches,  throw  hand  grenades,  use  the 
bayonet,  and  cut  barbed  wire  without  making  a 
noise.  For  is  not  his  faculty  of  soldiering  being 
trained?  As  long  as  we  do  not  believe  in  faculties 
we  are  more  modest  in  our  expectations.  We  perhaps 
agree  that  no  matter  how  well  he  shoots  with  a  rifle 
he  must  nevertheless  have  specific  lessons  in  the 
use  of  the  bayonet,  in  throwing  hand  grenades,  in 


124  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

digging  trenches,  and  in  cutting  wire.  On  the  other 
hand,  most  of  us  perhaps  would  admit  that  there  is 
something  in  common  between  shooting  with  a  rule 
and  shooting  with  a  cannon,  a  trench  mortar  or  a 
revolver.  These  arts  are  in  some  sense  one;  but 
our  government  can  not  train  its  soldiers  on  that 
basis.  It  gives  them  lessons  in  the  use  of  all  the 
arms.  Any  one  who  cares  to  can  conduct  experi- 
ments to  determine  just  what  degree  of  knowledge 
is  carried  over  from  rule-shooting  to  grenade-throw- 
ing or  operating  a  big  gun.  The  question  is  not 
without  interest,  but  its  answer  will  not  materially 
change  the  specific  training  which  the  nation  gives 
its  soldiers. 

Mr.  Moore  believes  that  the  process  of  reasoning 
can  be  acquired  apart  from  the  data  upon  which  it  is 
to  be  used.  Faculties  or  no  faculties,  that  is  the 
inveterate  error  of  formal  discipline,  its  separation 
of  activities  from  the  subject  matter  of  their  action. 
I  can  not  do  better  than  to  quote  Professor  Dewey 
upon  this  fundamental  fallacy  : 

To  talk  about  training  a  power,  mental  or  physical,  in  general, 
apart  from  the  subject  matter  involved  in  its  exercise,  is  nonsense. 

Mr.  F.  C.  Lewis's  results  are,  to  be  sure,  not  final. 
They  are  simple  enumerations  of  facts  as  he  found 
them.  They  can  not,  I  think,  be  tortured  into  mean- 
ing anything  but  a  challenge  to  the  other  side  to 
prove  its  case.  Mr.  Moore  declares  that  my  error 
in  regard  to  Dr.  Rugg's  experiments  is  in  believing 
that  we  can  obtain  "very  precise  results  by  the  use 
of  data  which  are  not  themselves  very  precise." 


MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE    125 

That  is  exactly  what  I  protested  against  the  other  side 
doing.  If  the  results  are  not  precise,  how  can  they 
be  more  precise  for  the  doctrine  than  against  it? 
Dr.  Rugg's  summary  of  the  results  of  the  experi- 
mental studies  thus  far  made  seems  to  me  to  be 
admirable : 

The  experimentation  has  not  led  to  the  acceptance  of  a  belief 
in  that  widespread  improvement  that  was  expected  by  the  old 
fonnal-disciplinists  prior  to  the  beginning  of  experimental  work. 
The  results  so  far  place  us  still  in  a  middle  ground.  "Transfer" 
is  an  accepted  experimental  fact,  but  as  to  the  extent  to  which 
training  transfers  and  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  its  trans- 
fer specialists  are  not  always  agreed.  .  .  .  Thus  the  studies 
indicate  that  the  law  of  learning  has  to  be  made  a  conscious 
matter  of  ideation  in  order  to  insure  any  considerable  amount  of 
transferred  improvement. 

Our  whole  complaint  against  the  doctrine  of  formal 
discipline  is  that  it  does  not  attempt  to  get  results 
by  conscious  ideation.  It  expects  them  to  grow 
where  they  have  not  been  planted.  If  they  grow  in 
reliable  quantity  only  from  conscious  ideation,  the 
superstition  that  they  come  of  themselves  as  happy 
by-products  is  banished,  and  the  fight  for  specific 
instruction  is  won. 

The  difference  between  Dr.  Rugg's  "not  yet 
proven,"  Dr.  Coover's  "proven,"  Mr.  Moore's 
"proven  beyond  a  question,"  Professor  Spearman's 
and  Dr.  Sleight's  "disproven,"  Professor  Dear- 
born's "not  proven,"  and  the  many  other  conflicting 
utterances  of  the  experimentalists  upon  this  doctrine 
have  put  a  cloud  upon  its  title,  which  no  amount  of 
special  pleading  can  remove.  When  we  attempt  to 


126  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

apply  these  highly  discordant  results  in  the  selection 
of  studies  and  ways  of  teaching,  we  can  make  nothing 
out  of  them.  They  are  a  counsel  of  confusion. 
Dr.  Coover's  summary  of  experimental  results  does 
not  agree  with  Dr.  Rugg's  and  does  not  seem  to  be 
entirely  warranted  by  the  experiments  which  he 
recounts.  But  let  us  take  it  as  though  it  were: 
"Under  experimental  conditions  the  'general*  effect 
usually  ranged  in  amount  from  one  fourth  to  three 
fourths  of  the  gain  made  in  specific  practice." 
Now  what  educational  application  can  one  make  out 
of  that?  Is  there  anything  in  it  which  rehabilitates 
the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  ?  Does  that  tell  us 
to  study  mathematics  for  formal  disciplinary  reasons 
or  not?  Does  it  indicate  that  mathematics  is 
superior  to  science,  history  or  literature  in  contribut- 
ing "general  effect"?  How  general  is  the  "general 
effect"  which  the  experiments  show?  Does  the 
experimenter  who  has  had  the  special  training  become 
better  in  all  respects  or  only  in  his  ability  to  repeat 
and  reapply  the  special  lesson  which  he  has  learned  ? 
He  can  do  kindred  work  or  perform  related  activities 
better,  he  is  not  trained  generally,  but  very  partic- 
ularly still.  The  fact  that  "transfer"  is  explained 
by  those  who  attempt  to  explain  it  as  due  to  common 
elements,  middle  terms,  identity  in  method,  content 
or  aim,  indicates  that  what  is  transferred  is  the  specific 
lesson  or  part  of  the  specific  lesson  which  has  been 
learned.  If  that  lesson  is  the  carrier,  it  must  be  kept 
in  the  focus  of  attention.  The  general  grows  out  of 
the  specific,  but  the  specific  must  be  learned  before 
there  can  be  a  general.  There  are  other  reasons  for 


MATHEMATICS  AND  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE    127 

emphasizing  the  preponderant  importance  of  specific 
training.  On  Dr.  Coover's  own  showing  it  always 
exceeds  the  "general  effect"  by  from  three-fourths 
to  one-fourth.  Now,  since  "general  effect"  is  only 
slightly  generalized  specific  effect,  why  not  arrange 
to  get  the  benefit  of  both  together  rather  than  reject 
the  one  to  get  the  other  ?  To  make  the  general  effect 
our  object  when  we  could  have  both  is  surely  un- 
economical. 

The  experiments  do  not  show  that  one  study  is 
better  than  another  in  producing  "general"  effects. 
They  offer  as  much  comfort  to  one  study  as  another. 
In  this  respect  they  do  not  establish  the  doctrine  of 
disciplinary  studies.  They  break  it  down. 

Professor  Spearman  and  Dr.  Sleight  can  not  be 
read  out  of  court  so  cavalierly.  As  for  the  burden  of 
proof  it  is  still  where  it  always  has  been  —  on  the  side 
making  an  assertion.  The  contention  that  partic- 
ular studies  have  special  and  greatly  to  be  preferred 
formal  disciplinary  effects  has  not  been  proven. 

Since  it  is  well  to  go  to  the  experts  for  reasons  for 
studying  a  subject,  I  should  like  to  repeat  two 
very  important  statements  made  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war  by  mathematicians.  "In  speaking  of 
the  significance  of  mathematics,'*  says  the  retiring 
president  of  the  Mathematical  Association  of  Amer- 
ica, Professor  E.  N.  Hendrick,  "I  understand  that 
we  mean  not  at  all  the  baser  material  advantage 
to  the  individual  student,  not  at  all  a  narrow  utili- 
tarianism, but  rather  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  the 
usefulness  of  mathematics  to  society  as  a  whole,  to 
science,  to  engineering,  to  the  nation.  Any  narrower 


128  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

view  would  be  unworthy  of  us;  any  narrower 
demand  by  educators  means  a  degraded  view  of  the 
purposes  of  education  in  a  democracy."  And  the 
other  from  the  presidential  address  to  the  Mathe- 
matical Association  of  Great  Britain,  January,  1916, 
by  Professor  A.  N.  Whitehead:  "But  what  is  the 
point  of  teaching  a  child  to  solve  a  quadratic  equa- 
tion ?  There  is  a  traditional  answer  to  this  question. 
It  runs  thus :  The  mind  is  an  instrument,  you  first 
sharpen  it  and  then  use  it.  The  acquisition  of  the 
power  of  solving  a  quadratic  equation  is  part  of  the 
process  of  sharpening  the  mind.  Now  there  is  just 
enough  truth  in  this  answer  to  have  made  it  live 
through  the  ages.  But  for  all  its  half  truth  it  em- 
bodies a  radical  error  which  bids  fair  to  stifle  the 
genius  of  the  modern  world.  .  .  .  Whoever  was  the 
originator,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  authority 
which  it  has  acquired  by  the  continuous  approval 
which  it  has  received  from  eminent  persons.  But 
whatever  its  weight  of  authority,  whatever  the  high 
approval  which  it  can  quote,  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  denouncing  it  as  one  of  the  most  fatal,  erroneous 
and  dangerous  conceptions  ever  introduced  into 
education." 


DOES  THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS 
TRAIN  THE  MIND  SPECIFICALLY  OR 
UNIVERSALLY?  A  REPLY  TO  A 
REPLY  1 

MY  discussion  was  what  it  professed  to  be,  not  a 
treatise,  not  an  encyclopedic  article,  not  even  an 
attempt  to  sum  up  both  sides  of  a  vast  controversy, 
•but  an  effort  to  state  in  forty  minutes  the  point  of  view 
that  the  study  of  mathematics  is  specific  to  a  company, 
The  Association  of  Teachers  of  Mathematics  in 
New  England,  almost  all  of  whom  were  well  indoc- 
trinated upholders  of  the  contrary  theory.  I  put 
into  my  argument  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  pertinent 
to  the  subject  and  the  occasion.  Professor  Moritz 
would  doubtless  have  treated  the  subject  quite 
differently,  but  he  must  not  arraign  me  because  I 
do  not  attach  to  the  arguments  and  citations  which 
he  would  have  used  the  value  he  attaches  to  them.  I 
shall  attempt  to  meet  his  points  in  the  order  in  which 
he  makes  them. 

That  education  is,  or  at  least  aims  to  be,  a  conscious 
process  and  a  purposive  undertaking,  he  seems  to 
doubt,  though  I  am  not  clear  as  to  what  alternative 
is  in  his  mind.  To  my  contention  that  studying  a 
subject  because  we  believe  that  we  owe  it  to  that 

1  Robert  E.  Moritz,  "Does  the  Study  of  Mathematics  Train  the  Mind 
SpeciBcally  or  Universally  ?  A  Reply,"  School  and  Society,  April  27, 1918. 
K  129 


130  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

subject  to  pay  it  that  debt  of  honor,  reverence, 
obeisance,  or  worship  is  a  form  of  idolatry  which 
annually  entails  a  heavy  sacrifice  of  young  lives,  he 
replies  that  "the  only  educator  who  is  on  record  for 
having  sacrificed  a  whole  hecatomb  of  lives  is 
Pythagoras.  ..."  The  taking  of  lives  in  the  name 
of  subjects  is  not  uncommon,  though  those  who  do 
it  do  not  allow  it  to  be  recorded.  To  the  statement 
that  science  for  the  sake  of  science,  literature  for 
the  sake  of  literature,  knowledge  for  the  sake  of 
knowledge  and  art  for  art's  sake  are  peculiarly  in- 
human beliefs  he  enters  a  vehement  protest.  I  think 
that  is  due  to  a  seeming  rather  than  a  real  difference, 
in  fundamental  philosophy;  though  I  am  not  sure, 
for  in  these  days  when  millions  offer  themselves  as 
sacrifices  to  that  supermetaphysical  state  which  does 
not  even  claim  to  exist  for  their  or  any  man's  good, 
but  rather  that  they  exist  for  it,  it  is  possible  that 
some  men  still  believe  that  knowledge,  art,  science, 
literature,  philosophy  and  mathematics  do  not  exist 
for  man's  sake  but  like  that  state  for  their  own. 
If  any  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  think  the  matter 
through,  he  will  not  stop  in  that  belief.  Un- 
fortunately for  Professor  Moritz's  argument,  the 
illustrations  which  he  offers  to  support  it  refute  it. 
You  can  not  prove  that  knowledge  exists  for  its  own 
sake  by  showing  that  it  has  ultimately  been  used. 
That  makes  it  instrumental.  In  the  New  Testament 
the  believers  are  promised  a  knowledge  of  the  truth 
"and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  That  is  its 
function.  If  it  does  not  make  itself  indispensable  by 
serving  in  some  capacity,  it  is  certain  to  be  neglected 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          131 

and  forgotten  as  so  many  so-called  discoveries, 
revelations  and  systems  of  knowledge  have  been, 
for  the  law  of  survival  weeds  out  mental  products 
just  as  it  weeds  out  organisms. 

But  Professor  Moritz's  meaning  may  be  that 
though  knowledge  does  not  exist  for  the  sake  of 
knowledge,  the  investigator  in  order  to  give  himself 
unreservedly  to  investigation  must  act  somewhat 
in  that  spirit.  That,  I  think,  is  sound.  Though  the 
sole  purpose  of  knowledge  is  to  minister  to  human 
need,  investigation  must  run  ahead  of  human  need 
and  lay  up  a  stock  of  knowledge  in  anticipation  of 
society's  future  requirements.  If  the  investigator 
attempts  too  exactly  to  determine  the  utility  of  his 
discovery  before  he  has  made  it,  he  will  desert  his 
function  of  investigating  to  busy  himself  with  passing 
a  final  judgment  upon  the  value  of  the  facts  which  he 
proposes  to  examine,  which  is  the  function  of  society 
and  one  which  it  can  perform  only  when  he  has  done 
his  work  of  putting  the  facts  which  he  has  discovered 
at  its  command.  It  enjoins  him  to  go  forth  and 
make  discovery  as  though  discovery  was  an  end  in 
itself,  well  knowing  that  what  he  does  is  only  half 
the  story,  for  it  reserves  to  itself  the  right  to  pass 
upon  the  value  of  all  that  he  offers  it  and  to  reject 
whatever  parts  of  his  contribution  do  not  in  some 
way  serve  it.  That  is,  its  command  to  him  to 
extend  the  boundaries  of  knowledge  for  the  sake  of 
knowledge  is  methodological,  and  not  at  all  a  final 
philosophy. 

But  is  that  principle  of  method  to  be  applied  in 
schools  where  what  is  attempted  is  the  quite  different 


132  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

task  of  bringing  the  consciousness  of  the  young  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  discoveries  which  the  race  has 
made  and  whose  value  it  has  proven  by  its  need? 
Surely  the  lessons  which  are  taught  must  not  be 
lessons  for  the  sake  of  lessons,  and  if  we  are  at  all 
serious,  they  will  be  carefully  chosen  because  of 
their  unmistakable  value.  We  may  quarrel  about 
what  is  valuable,  but  how  can  we  possibly  differ 
about  it  being  value,  and  nothing  but  value,  that 
we  seek  for  them  ? 

As  to  there  being  "only  three  purposes,  if  there 
were  more  the  writer  would  have  discovered 
them,"  I  think  Professor  Moritz  credits  me  with 
less  humility  than  I  try  to  bring  to  the  discussion 
of  these  matters. 

This  proposition  that  the  mind  needs  no  improving,  that  in 
fact  it  can  not  be  improved,  is  so  obvious  to  the  writer  that  he 
considers  any  discussion  of  it  a  mere  waste  of  time. 

I  fear  I  have  not  made  my  meaning  plain.  There 
is  a  room  in  the  Harvard  Club  in  Boston  which  is  set 
apart  for  the  use  of  graduates  of  the  medical  school, 
and  over  the  fireplace  in  that  room  is  an  inscription 
which  sums  up  in  a  sentence  the  philosophy  of  the 
medical  profession.  It  reads  : 

We  dress  the  wound,  God  heals  it. 

If  the  physician  can  not  heal  wounds,  can  the 
teacher  make  over  minds,  repair  them,  add  cubits 
to  their  stature,  build  additions  to  them,  sharpen 
them,  improve  them,  perfect  them?  We  may  say 
that  he  is  engaged  in  doing  that,  just  as  we  sometimes 
say  that  the  gardener  makes  the  plant  grow,  but  if 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          133 

we  are  trying  to  think  exactly,  and  to  speak  exactly, 
we  will  not  say  that  or  think  that.  As  for  perfect- 
ing the  faculties  of  the  mind,  it  is  plain  that  if  there 
are  no  faculties,  they  can  not  be  perfected. 

Professor  Moritz  has  it  that  I  "promised  to  point 
out  that  there  have  been  almost  or  quite  as  many 
competent  critics  of  this  doctrine  as  upholders  of  it,'* 
and  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  I  do  neither,  citing  but 
one  authority  for  it ;  namely,  Professor  C.  J.  Keyser, 
and  "almost  or  quite  as  many"  ;  namely,  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  as  opposing  it.  Promised  is  not  the  word ; 
stated  or  pointed  out,  in  the  sense  of  calling  attention 
to  the  fact,  is.  My  critic's  method  of  counting,  by 
which  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  d'Alembert,  Des- 
cartes and  Blaise  Pascal  become  "one  authority  .  .  . 
namely,  Sir  William  Hamilton,"  is,  to  say  the  least, 
confusing.  To  my  non-mathematical  mind  these 
names  represented  several  important  thinkers  with 
not  a  little  knowledge  of  mathematics  and  some 
ability  to  tell  about  its  rightful  claims.  I  fear  I  have 
not  sufficiently  "  observed  the  unit."  I  can,  however, 
assure  him  that  when  Professor  Keyser  declared  that 
Sir  William  Hamilton  distorted  "the  express  and 
unmistakable  meaning"  of  d'Alembert,  Blaise  Pascal 
and  Descartes, "even  to  the  extent  of  complete  inver- 
sion," Hamilton  did  not  misquote  their  words  in 
these  passages.  If  they  did  not  say  what  they  meant, 
that  statement  may  be  true,  but  if  they  were  able 
to  put  their  thoughts  into  language,  that  statement 
needs  revision.  Why  is  it  that  Sir  William 
Hamilton's  paper  causes  such  spasmodic  wrigglings 
in  certain  quarters  even  to-day? 


134  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

He  even  fails  to  detect  the  fine  irony  contained  in  Professor 
Young's  remark. 

The  remark  referred  to  is  the  second  statement 
in  the  following  quotation.  Let  the  reader  detect 
the  irony  if  he  can. 

The  reading  of  his  paper  (Sir  William  Hamilton's)  is  instructive 
to  the  teacher  of  mathematics,  as  are  all  thoughtful  judgments  of 
the  subject  or  any  of  its  phases,  from  those  who  look  at  it  from  a 
different  viewpoint.  It  is  a  pity  more  such  criticisms  are  not 
made.  Carefully  studied,  Sir  William  Hamilton's  paper  shows 
that  much  progress  has  been  made  in  the  pedagogy  of  mathe- 
matics since  his  time,  and  should  serve  to  spur  on  or  to  encourage 
the  teacher  in  his  efforts  often  enough  quite  arduous,  to  keep  the 
pupil  at  work  evolving  his  own  mathematics.1 

"It  seems  incredible,"  says  Professor  Moritz, 
"that  any  writer  who  values  his  reputation  should 
play  up  arguments  published  over  eighty  years  ago, 
and  which  were  answered  in  detail  by  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  thinkers,  without  even  making 
mention  of  that  fact."  Ah!  but  were  they  answered 
in  detail?  Instead  of  destroying  Hamilton's  case 
did  not  Mill  indeed  proceed  to  make  a  stronger  case 
than  Hamilton  had  made?  Every  pragmatist  is 
profoundly  indebted  to  John  Stuart  Mill  for  light 
and  leading  in  the  very  fundamentals  of  belief.  The 
twenty- seventh  chapter  of  his  "Examination  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton's  Philosophy"  is  particularly  dear 
to  them,  but  not  for  the  reasons  for  which  Professor 
Moritz  values  it.  Indeed,  as  a  reply  to  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  it  is  singularly  dogmatic  and  ineffective. 
Its  great  author  does  not  seem  at  all  times  to  know 
just  what  Hamilton  really  says,  and  in  the  end  he 

1  Young,  "The  Teaching  of  Mathematics,"  p.  39. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          135 

out-Hamiltons  Hamilton  in  his  distrust  of  mathe- 
matics. His  point  that  Hamilton  was  no  mathe- 
matician and  therefore  not  qualified  to  discuss  the 
question  would  be  more  telling  if  the  question  were  a 
mathematical  one. 

What  does  Mill  really  claim  for  the  study  of  mathe- 
matics? To  Hamilton's  contention  that  mathe- 
matics "does  not  teach  us  either  by  theory  or 
practice  to  estimate  probabilities,"  his  reply  is : 

Did  any  mathematician  or  eulogist  of  mathematics  ever  pre- 
tend that  it  did  ? 

Inasmuch  as  abstract  science  in  general  and  mathematics  in 
particular  afford  no  practice  in  the  estimation  of  conflicting 
probabilities,  which  is  the  kind  of  sagacity  most  required  in  the 
conduct  of  practical  affairs,  it  follows  that  when  made  so  exclusive 
an  occupation  as  to  prevent  the  mind  from  obtaining  enough  of 
this  necessary  practice  in  other  ways,  it  does  worse  than  not 
cultivate  the  faculty  —  it  prevents  it  from  being  acquired,  and 
pro  tanto  unfits  the  person  for  the  general  business  of  life. 

If  Mill  is  to  be  our  authority,  that  passage  alone, 
if  followed,  would  free  many,  perhaps  most,  high- 
school  pupils  from  the  burden  of  present-day  mathe- 
matical requirements.  But  Mill  is  more  confident, 
perhaps  too  confident,  that  the  subject  has  other 
values. 

Let  us  be  assured  that  for  the  formation  of  a  well-trained  in- 
tellect it  is  no  slight  recommendation  of  a  study  that  it  is  the 
means  by  which  the  mind  is  earliest  and  most  easily  brought  to 
maintain  within  itself  a  standard  of  complete  proof. 

But  those  students  of  whom  Herbert  Spencer 
doubted  "if  one  boy  in  five  hundred  ever  heard  the 
explanation  of  a  rule  of  arithmetic  or  knows  his 
Euclid  otherwise  than  by  rote"  did  not  acquire  from 


136  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

their  study  a  standard  of  complete  proof;  that 
result  does  not  come  as  a  by-product  of  studying 
algebra  or  geometry  for  a  certain  time.  Not  the 
mere  manipulation  of  algebraic  and  geometrical  facts 
and  processes,  but  specific  lessons  which  have  for 
their  purpose  the  development  of  the  notion  of 
what  mathematical  proof  is  and  what  its  demands 
and  requirements  are,  will  if  they  are  successful,  train 
the  mind  to  familiarity  with  such  standards.  Only 
the  teacher  who  believes  in  miracles  will  hope  to 
reap  such  results  where  he  has  not  sown.  And  inas- 
much as  proof  is  one  thing  in  geometry  and  a  very 
different  thing  in  history  or  science  or  ethics,  both 
the  teacher  and  the  student  must  remember  that  it  is 
not  a  standard  of  proof  but  a  standard  of  mathe- 
matical proof  which  they  are  elaborating.  Mill  him- 
self shall  prove  that  in  a  moment. 

Another  claim  for  mathematical  studies  which  Mill 
makes  is  that  they  habituate  the  student  to  precision. 
To  precision  in  all  things  or  to  precision  in  mathe- 
matics? Any  one  who  has  spent  his  life  in  dealing 
with  students  knows  that  precision  is  a  rare  trait 
both  before  and  after  they  have  taken  mathematics 
courses.  There  is  no  denying  that  that  ideal  may 
be  developed  in  the  mathematics  class  and  required 
there  and  may  even  be  generalized  to  reach  out  and 
apply  to  operations  other  than  those  which  are  per- 
formed there,  but  it  is  only  the  teacher  who  con- 
sciously teaches  that  lesson  who  is  likely  to  establish 
that  ideal.  Instruction  in  it,  too,  must  be  specific  or 
it  will  not  betray  its  existence  very  commonly  even 
in  the  mathematics  classroom. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          137 

Neither  is  it  a  small  advantage  of  mathematical  studies,  even 
in  their  poorest  and  most  meager  form,  that  they  at  least 
habituate  the  mind  to  resolve  a  train  of  reasoning  into  steps  and 
make  sure  of  each  step  before  advancing  to  another. 

Here  again  Mill  is  talking  of  what  mathematics 
when  taught  in  a  certain  purposive  way  may  accom- 
plish rather  than  what  mere  consorting  with  the 
subject  does  accomplish  for  the  student.  It  is  not 
the  subject  but  a  certain  specific  attack  upon  the 
subject  which  will  bring  results  of  that  nature. 
The  problem  method,  for  example,  has  been  employed 
for  centuries  in  the  teaching  and  studying  of  mathe- 
matics but  it  has  not  been  applied  to  other  subjects 
until  very  recently,  though  it  could  have  been  applied 
most  profitably  to  them.  Our  contention  is  that 
these  lessons  are  not  by-products  of  the  ordinary 
teaching  of  mathematics,  but  when  they  are  conse- 
quences of  that  subject,  it  is  because  they  have  been 
consciously  made  to  take  their  places  as  essential 
parts  of  the  content  which  is  taught  and  studied  in 
that  subject. 

1  Since  Professor  Moritz  has  appealed  to  Mill,  to 
Mill  he  must  go,  though  he  will  regret  having 
called  upon  him  for  judgment  when  he  finds  out  what 
his  judgment  is.  Thus  far  his  champion,  though 
rather  inconclusive,  has  stood  beside  him ;  but  now 
their  ways  part  completely,  for  Mill  declares  that 
Sir  William  Hamilton  has  indeed  made 

a  far  less  powerful  attack  upon  the  tendencies  of  mathematical 
studies  than  could  easily  be  made  by  one  who  understood  the 
subject.  He  has  in  fact  missed  the  most  considerable  of  the 
evil  effects  to  the  production  of  which  those  studies  have  con- 


138  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

tributed ;  and  has  thrown  no  light  on  the  intellectual  shortcomings 
of  the  common  run  of  mathematicians  so  singularly  displayed  in 
their  wretched  treatment  of  the  generalities  of  their  own 
science.  .  .  . 

"The  one  really  grave  charge  which  rests  on  the 
mathematical  spirit, "  according  to  Mill,  is  that 

it  leads  men  to  place  their  ideal  of  Science  in  deriving  all  knowl- 
edge from  a  small  number  of  axiomatic  premises,  accepted  as 
self-evident  and  taken  for  immediate  intuitions  of  reason.  This 
is  what  Descartes  attempted  to  do  and  inculcated  as  the  thing 
to  be  done;  and  as  he  shares  with  only  one  other  name  the 
honor  of  having  given  his  impress  to  the  whole  character  of  the 
modern  speculative  movement,  the  consequences  of  his  error 
have  been  most  calamitous.  .  .  .  All  reflecting  persons  in 
England  and  many  in  France  perceive  that  the  chief  infirmities 
of  French  thinking  arise  from  its  geometrical  spirit.  ...  If 
this  be  the  case  even  in  France,  it  is  still  worse  in  Germany,  the 
whole  of  whose  speculative  philosophy  is  an  emanation  from  Des- 
cartes, and  to  most  of  whose  thinkers  the  Baconian  point  of  view  is 
still  below  the  horizon.  Through  Spinoza,  who  gave  to  his  system 
the  very  forms  as  well  as  the  entire  spirit  of  geometry ;  through 
the  mathematician  Leibnitz,  who  reigned  supreme  over  the 
German  speculative  mind  for  above  a  generation;  with  its 
spirit  temporarily  modified  by  the  powerful  intellectual  in- 
dividuality ofiKant,  but  flying  back  after  him  to  its  uncorrected 
tendencies,  the  geometrical  spirit  went  on  from  bad  to  worse, 
until  in  Schelling  and  Hegel  the  laws  even  of  physical  nature  were 
deduced  by  ratiocination  from  subjective  deliverances  of  the 
mind.  The  whole  of  German  philosophical  speculation  has  run 
from  the  beginning  in  this  wrong  groove,  and  having  only 
recently  become  aware  of  the  fact  is  at  present  making  con- 
vulsive efforts  to  get  out  of  it.  All  these  mistakes  and  this 
deplorable  waste  of  time  and  intellectual  power  by  some  of  the 
most  gifted  and  cultivated  portions  of  the  human  race  are  effects 
of  the  too  unqualified  predominance  of  the  mental  habits  and 
tendencies  engendered  by  elementary  mathematics. 


'THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          139 

If  Mill  had  this  to  say  at  that  time  for  the  mental 
habits  and  tendencies  engendered  by  elementary 
mathematics,  what  would  he  have  said  had  he  written 
that  passage  to-day  in  the  midst  of  the  full  flowering 
of  German  philosophical  ideas?  Mathematics  sets 
up  a  standard  of  proof,  but  in  the  minds  in  which  it 
does  that  the  effect  is  reprehensible.  Mathematics 
habituates  the  student  to  precision,  but  if  he  seeks 
mathematical  precision  in  non-mathematical  fields, 
see  what  a  mess  he  makes  of  it.  Mathematics 
habituates  the  mind  to  resolve  a  train  of  reasoning 
into  steps  and  make  sure  of  each  step  before  it 
advances  to  another,  but  the  reasoning  must  be 
mathematical  before  the  mathematical  linkage  will 
apply.  The  net  result  is  that  mathematical  ideals 
and  processes  apply  to  mathematics  and  its  imme- 
diate applications.  Now  if  these  notions  in  their  un- 
restricted form  are  harmful  in  men,  would  they  not  be 
equally  harmful  in  young  men  and  in  children  if  they 
indeed  got  them  from  their  study  of  that  subject? 
So  we  must  add  to  our  contention  that  they  do  not  get 
such  general  ideas,  but  only  specific  ideas  narrowly 
applied,  the  further  conviction  that  it  would  be 
harmful  if  they  did. 

I  have  spent  many  years  upon  Plato  and  nowhere 
do  I  find  him  upholding  the  by-product  theory  of 
education.  He  is  far  too  good  a  thinker  to  do  that. 
His  whole  emphasis  from  the  good  musician  to  the 
good  guardian  is  that  specific  training  alone  will 
accomplish  the  result  which  is  wanted.  When  he 
says  that  arithmetic  makes  one  quicker  he  means 
merely  that  one  who  studies  it  as  Plato  intended 


140  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

gets  a  new  notion  of  intelligence  as  a  successful 
problem  solver,  a  notion  which  makes  him  attack 
recognizedly  similar  problems  more  vigorously.  Let 
me  quote  again  his  own  words,  which  Professor 
Moritz,  distracted  by  his  statement  "I  have  hardly 
ever  known  a  mathematician  who  could  reason," 
failed  to  read. 

When  there  is  some  contradiction  always  present  and  one  is 
the  reverse  of  one  and  involves  the  conception  of  plurality,  then 
thought  begins  to  be  aroused  within  us  and  the  soul,  perplexed  and 
wanting  to  arrive  at  a  decision,  asks:  "What  is  unity  itself?" 
This  is  the  way  in  which  the  study  of  the  one  has  a  power  of 
drawing  and  converting  the  mind  to  the  contemplation  of  true 
being. 

As  true  being  is  intelligence,  the  claim  which  is 
made  is  that  these  studies  when  rightly  used  lead  to 
self -disco  very.  There  is  not  the  slightest  need  to 
quarrel  about  his  theory  of  education,  for  Plato  him- 
self has  stated  that  it  was  specific  in  a  most  luminous 
and  definite  passage  which  reads : 

According  to  my  view  any  one  who  would  be  good  at  any- 
thing must  practice  that  thing  from  his  youth  upward  both  in 
sport  and  in  earnest  in  its  several  branches ;  for  example,  he  who 
is  to  be  a  good  builder,  should  play  at  building  children's  houses ; 
he  who  is  to  be  a  good  husbandman,  at  tilling  the  ground ;  and  those 
who  have  the  care  of  their  education  should  provide  them  when 
young  with  mimic  tools.  They  should  learn  beforehand  the  knowl- 
edge which  they  will  afterwards  require  for  their  art.  For  example, 
the  future  carpenter  should  learn  to  measure  or  apply  the  line 
in  play ;  and  the  future  warrior  should  learn  riding  or  some  other 
exercise,  for  amusement,  and  the  teacher  should  endeavor  to 
direct  the  children's  inclinations  and  pleasures  by  the  help  of 
amusements  to  their  final  aim  in  life.  The  most  important  part 
of  education  is  right  training  in  the  nursery.  The  soul  of  the 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          141 

child  in  his  play  should  be  guided  to  the  love  of  that  sort  of 
excellence  in  which  when  he  grows  up  to  manhood  he  will  have 
to  be  perfected.  Do  you  agree  with  me  thus  far  ? 

"Certainly." 

Then  let  us  not  leave  the  meaning  of  education  ambiguous  or 
ill  defined.  At  present  when  we  speak  hi  terms  of  praise  or 
blame  about  the  bringing-up  of  each  person,  we  call  one  man 
educated  and  another  uneducated,  although  the  uneducated 
man  may  be  sometimes  very  well  educated  for  the  calling  of  a 
retail  trader,  or  of  a  captain  of  a  ship  and  the  like.  For  we  are 
not  speaking  of  education  in  this  narrower  sense,  but  of  that  other 
education  in  virtue  from  youth  upwards,  which  makes  a  man 
eagerly  pursue  the  ideal  perfection  of  citizenship,  and  teaches 
him  how  rightly  to  rule  and  how  to  obey.  This  is  the  only  edu- 
cation which,  upon  our  view,  deserves  the  name ;  that  other  sort 
of  training  which  aims  at  the  acquisition  of  wealth  or  bodily 
strength  or  mere  cleverness  apart  from  intelligence  and  justice 
is  mean  and  illiberal  and  is  not  worthy  to  be  called  education  at 
all.  But  let  us  not  quarrel  with  one  another  about  a  word,  pro- 
vided that  the  proposition  which  has  just  been  granted  hold  good  : 
to  wit,  that  those  who  are  rightly  educated  become  good  men. 
Neither  must  we  cast  a  slur  upon  education,  which  is  the  first  and 
fairest  thing  that  the  best  of  men  can  ever  have,  and  which, 
though  liable  to  take  a  wrong  direction,  is  capable  of  reforma- 
tion, and  this  work  of  reformation  is  the  great  business  of  every 
man  while  he  lives.1 

As  to  Comte,  I  am  unable  to  find  a  single  passage 
which  supports  the  by-product  theory.  My  critic 
shall  have  all  the  comfort  he  can  get  from  the  long 
list  of  extracts  he  cites.  To  me  the  one  thing  which 
they  state  is  that  if  one  studies  mathematics  to  good 
purpose,  he  will  be  able  to  use  mathematics  in  the 
various  applications  of  it  which  he  masters.  If 
Professor  Moritz  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  on 

»"Laws,".648-44. 


142  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

until  he  comes  to  Comte's  chapter  entitled  "Final 
Estimate  of  the  Positive  Method,"  he  will  find  much 
that  does  not  agree  with  his  interpretation. 
"Though  the  geometrical  and  mechanical  point  of 
view  is  universal  .  .  .  they  can  never,  even  in  the 
simplest  cases,  obviate  the  necessity  of  a  direct  study 
of  the  subject;  and  that  direct  study  must  always 
be  the  preponderant  one."  Does  Comte  then  believe 
that  mathematics  is  a  preferred  study,  or  that  it  is 
only  one  among  many  ?  Does  he  believe  in  specific 
or  in  that  vague  thing  called  "general  training?" 

It  is  certain  that  astronomical,  like  physical  discovery,  has 
been  much  impeded  by  the  intrusion  of  the  geometers,  who  do 
not  perceive  in  the  one  case  any  more  than  in  the  other,  that  the 
pursuit  of  any  science  is  the  work  of  students  who  understand 
the  special  destination  of  the  instrument,  logical  or  material,  as 
well  as  its  structure. 

The  only  really  universal  point  of  view  is  the  human,  or,  speak- 
ing exactly,  the  social. 

The  mathematicians  may  be  incapable  of  estimating  social 
researches,  but  sociologists  are  free  from  their  blindness,  and 
can  never  possibly  underrate  mathematical  labors. 

A  few  years  spent  in  pursuing  one  kind  of  studies,  so  simple 
as  to  be  accessible  to  average  ability,  are  the  mathematical 
qualification;  but  the  result  has  been,  in  the  most  triumphant 
days  of  mathematical  ambition,  a  supremacy  more  apparent  than 
real,  and  wholly  destitute  amidst  all  its  pretensions  to  scientific 
universality,  of  the  practical  reality  which  belongs  to  sociological 
ascendancy. 

The  comparative  method  proper  to  biology,  and  the  historical 
method  proper  to  sociology  are  the  two  greatest  logical  creations, 
achieved  in  the  face  of  extreme  scientific  difficulties :  but  the 
disgraceful  ignorance  of  almost  all  geometers  of  these  two  trans- 
cendent methods  of  logical  investigation  shows  that  it  was  not 
mathematics  that  furnished  the  conception.  .  .  . 


THE   STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          143 

As  to  the  experiments  which  have  been  made  and 
particularly  as  to  those  of  them  to  which  I  referred, 
I  think  my  critic  goes  much  too  fast  also.  He  pro- 
fesses deep  solicitude  for  the  impartial  weighing  of 
scientific  evidence,  and  in  that  I  share,  but  one 
must  carry  out  his  pretensions.  There  is  much 
magic  in  such  a  phrase  as  "the  coefficient  of  corre- 
lation" and  he  uses  it  to  the  full.  "Does  not  the 
writer  know,"  he  asks,  "that  Lewis's  tests  have  been 
repeatedly  discredited  by  other  writers?"  Such  as 
they  are  they  have  not  been  discredited.  What  "the 
other  writers"  to  whom  he  refers  have  done  has  been 
to  take  Lewis's  data  and  to  calculate  coefficients  of 
correlation  for  them.  That  translates  his  results  into 
other  language  but  does  not  change  the  results  in 
the  slightest.  Lewis  did  not  phrase  them  in  that 
language,  he  simply  described  them.  Their  formula 
contains  exactly  what  his  description  contained,  but 
by  their  formula  they  imply  a  causative  relation 
between  one  study  and  another,  whereas  in  this  case 
no  such  causative  relation  is  either  shown  or  implied 
by  their  coefficient  of  correlation,  for  no  measure- 
ment was  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  test  and  there 
is  no  proof  whatever  that  the  marks  had  any  such 
causative  relation  to  each  other.  If  my  critic  means 
that  Lewis's  test  is  far  from  proving  anything  save 
that  a  large  number  of  students  who  are  good  in 
mathematics  are  poor  in  law  and  vice  versa,  that  is 
correct,  but  that  is  all  I  offered  them  as  illustrating. 

For  the  thoroughness  of  Professor  Rugg's  study 
I  have  nothing  but  praise.  As  to  the  bearing  of  his 
results  upon  educational  practice  he  is  by  no  means  so 


144  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

dogmatic  as  Professor  Moritz  is.     This  is  the  final 
paragraph  in  his  book  : 1 

The  possibility  of  one  disciplinary  outcome  in  a  specific  school 
subject,  i.e.,  ability  in  the  mental  manipulation  of  spatial  ele- 
ments, has  been  established  in  this  investigation.  The  writer 
believes  that  formal  school  subjects  find  a  large  part  of  their 
disciplinary  value  in  the  developing  of  this  ability  to  analyze 
the  problem  and  to  organize  a  method  of  procedure;  to  build 
up  ideals,  or  to  organize  a  method  of  attack.  But  it  is  undoubted 
that  they  also  make  habitual,  or  automatic,  many  specific 
constituents  of  the  complex  abilities  that  function  in  many  com- 
plex situations.  The  successful  habitualizing  of  these  specific 
reactions  is  accentuated  by  the  building  up  of  a  background  of 
fundamental  attitudes  of  orientation,  or  familiarity  with  the 
content  of  the  situations  to  be  met.  It  may  be  increased  by  the 
accompaniment  of  practice  in  extending  the  range  of  attention. 

Is  this  ability  to  analyze  the  problem  and  to 
organize  a  method  of  procedure  general  or  specific? 
In  the  nature  of  the  case,  method  must  be  specific 
to  the  matter  to  which  it  applies.  It  may  be 
applicable  far  beyond  the  limits  of  "the  specific 
school  subject"  in  connection  with  which  it  is  taught, 
but  it  can  not  be  unlimited  unless  it  be  too  abstract 
to  connect  up  with  any  subject  matter  in  particular. 
The  "specific  constituents"  of  the  complex  abilities 
which  they  —  the  so-called  disciplinary  studies  — 
make  habitual  were,  it  will  be  noted,  specific  con- 
stituents. That  is,  certain  specific  methods,  ideals 
and  habits  were  learned  and  were  applied  beyond  the 
particular  subject  matter  in  connection  with  which 
they  were  expressly  taught.  In  another  connection 
Professor  Rugg  asks : 

1"The  Experimental  Determination  of  Mental  Discipline  in  School 
Studies,"  by  H.  O.  Eugg;  Warwick  &  York,  1916. 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          145 

But  having  satisfied  ourselves  that  the  effect  of  training  did 
spread  to  abilities  not  specifically  trained  by  the  training  series 
[I  think  he  means  by  "abilities"  here,  not  procedures  or  acts,  but 
their  application  to  a  new  subject  matter]  can  we  go  further  and 
offer  any  definite  information  as  to  the  exact  range  of  this  spread 
of  improvement?  Can  we  say,  for  example,  that  with  the 
average  student  the  training  carried  over  one-half  or  four- 
tenths  as  efficiently  into  quasi-geometrical  fields  as  it  did  into 
fields  dealing  with  strictly  geometrical  elements?  Or  that  it 
carried  over  one-third  or  one-fourth  as  efficiently  with  non-geo- 
metrical elements  as  with  strictly  geometrical  elements?  Ob- 
viously we  can  not.  In  order  to  do  so  we  should  require  a 
definite  measure  of  the  adequacy  of  each  test  as  a  measure  of  the 
specific  abilities  tested.  .  .  .  To  know  that,  however,  would 
require  the  solution  of  a  problem  in  the  design  of  mental  tests, 
and  in  the  calibration  of  mental  tests,  which  in  itself  would  be 
very  formidable  and  one  whose  solution  has  not  been  deemed 
possible  as  a  preliminary  step  in  the  conduct  of  this  study. 

Here  again  Professor  Moritz  employs  the  charm 
of  the  coefficient  of  correlation  to  produce  the  state 
of  mind  which  he  desires. 

For  mathematics  and  descriptive  geometry  it  was  found  to 
be  0.70;  for  mathematics  and  foreign  languages  0.50;  for 
mathematics  and  English  0.40.  .  .  .  Now,  as  is  well  known, 
correlation  coefficients  ranging  above  0.40  indicate  a  high  degree 
of  correlation  and  create  a  strong  presumption  in  favor  of  some 
causal  relation  between  the  efficiencies  compared. 

Professor  Rugg,  following  Rietz,  to  whom  Moritz 
appeals,  puts  it  differently : 

The  author's  practice  is  to  regard  correlation  as  "negligible" 
or  "indifferent"  when  r  is  less  than  .15  or  .20;  as  being  present, 
but  "low"  when  r  is  .15  or  .20  to  .35  or  .40;  as  being  "marked" 
from  .40  to  .50  or  .60 ;  and  as  being  "high"  with  values  of  r  above 
.50  or  .60. 


146  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

That,  I  suppose,  is  a  minor  difference,  but  a  mathe- 
matician should  be  exact. 

Now  while  the  absence  of  correlation  proves  the 
absence  of  "transfer,"  the  presence  of  even  a  "high" 
correlation  does  not  prove  that  it  was  due  to  transfer ; 
while  it  creates  a  presumption,  the  burden  of  proving 
that  it  was  due  to  transfer  rests  upon  those  who  make 
the  contention.  To  make  their  case  they  must 
establish  the  fact  that  they  have  employed  a  definite 
measure  of  the  adequacy  of  each  test,  which  is 
exactly  what  Professor  Rugg  says  has  not  been 
done.  The  nature  of  the  lessons  given  must  be 
examined  to  find  out  whether  their  effects  were 
specific  or  general.  Again,  if  only  a  high  degree  of 
correlation  establishes  a  strong  presumption  in 
favor  of  some  causal  relation  between  the  efficiencies 
compared,  that  presumption  is  established  only  in 
the  case  of  mathematics  and  descriptive  geometry, 
but  not  in  the  case  of  mathematics  and  foreign  lan- 
guages or  in  the  case  of  mathematics  and  English. 

Let  that  be  as  it  may.  There  are  many  other 
experimental  studies  which  I  did  not  attempt  to 
report,  choosing  these  merely  because  they  had  to  do 
with  mathematics.  Taken  together  or  distributively 
they  seem  to  assist  materially  in  establishing  the 
fact  that  we  can  not  any  longer  choose  studies  or 
put  our  confidence  in  studies  or  require  students  to 
take  studies  on  the  ground  of  their  formal  disciplinary 
value.  The  tests  one  and  all  confirm  that;  some- 
thing is  transferred  sometimes  and  in  some  degree, 
but  it  is  too  meager  and  uncertain  to  warrant  any 
one  in  pursuing  the  subject  for  its  sake  alone.  The 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          147 

question  of  the  existence  of  "transfer"  and  the 
amount  of  the  "transfer"  has  thus  become  a  question 
for  mathematical  psychology.  In  its  present  form 
it  has  no  bearing  on  educational  procedure.  Why? 
Because  the  tests  themselves  show  quite  conclusively, 
since  the  coefficient  of  correlation  in  one  case  is  .70 
between  mathematics  and  descriptive  geometry  and 
.50  between  mathematics  and  foreign  languages  and 
only  .40  between  mathematics  and  English,  and  in 
every  case  takes  that  varying  form,  that  what  we 
are  dealing  with  is  not  general  powers  which  should, 
if  they  were  general,  operate  in  the  same  general  way 
without  regard  to  differences  in  subject  matter,  but 
specific  effects  of  training  which  have  no  constant 
value  but  are  applicable  to  the  contexts  to  which 
they  belong,  but  not  beyond  them. 

Even  if  all  the  experiments  should  with  one  voice 
show  a  uniform  coefficient  of  correlation  of  .90 
between  mathematics  and  every  other  study  in  the 
curriculum,  not  until  it  is  clearly  proven  that  the 
study  of  mathematics  is  the  only  study  which  pro- 
duces that  result  can  it  claim  the  by-product  value 
which  would  warrant  us  in  teaching  it  as  formal 
discipline  while  the  others  were  taught  only  for  their 
specific  utilities.  Perhaps  they,  too,  through  their 
representative  character  affect  our  work  in  matters 
which  are  not  mentioned  in  the  textbooks.  If  they 
do  not,  we  had  better  stop  teaching  them. 

Not  until  the  study  of  mathematics  can  show  a 
correlation  coefficient  of  1  with  other  studies  can 
that  study  claim  the  time  and  the  energy  which  we 
need  for  those  other  studies  on  the  score  that  pursuit 


148  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

of  it  is  proxy  for  pursuit  of  them.  If  one  has  need 
for  mathematics,  and  most  do,  he  must  study  the 
mathematics  which  he  needs.  But  if  he  has  need  for 
French  shall  he,  for  the  sake  of  its  formal  discipline, 
take  a  course  in  mathematics  which  he  does  not  need 
because  the  coefficient  of  correlation  between  mathe- 
matics and  foreign  languages  has  been  found  to  be 
.50,  or  shall  he  take  a  course  in  French?  Assume 
that  my  situation  is  such  that  I  want  to,  and  must, 
master  Arabic,  but  have  no  specific  need  for  Hebrew. 
Assume  further  that  the  coefficient  of  correlation 
between  Hebrew  and  Arabic  has  been  found  to  be 
.70.  Shall  I  spend  my  time  on  the  Hebrew  that 
I  do  not  need  or  shall  I  attack  the  Arabic  at  once? 
That  is  the  question.  If  I  attack  it  at  once,  I  may 
be  able  to  master  as  much  Arabic  as  Hebrew  in  the 
time  that  I  should  be  compelled  to  devote  to  Hebrew. 
Is  it  not  the  same  with  other  studies  ?  There  are  a 
number  of  them  that  we  need  and  need  desperately 
and  have  all  too  little  time  for.  Shall  we  not  devote 
ourselves  to  them? 

Professor  Moritz  agrees  that  mathematics  does  not 
train  the  mind  universally;  from  him  that  is  a  large 
concession.  He  holds  that  it  does  more  than  train 
the  mind  specifically  and  is  eager  to  know  how  much 
more  than  that  it  does.  That,  he  says,  is  an  open 
question.  But  does  he  propose  to  go  on  forcing 
students  to  take  mathematics  for  its  formal  dis- 
ciplinary effects  until  that  question  is  answered,  or 
is  he  willing  to  declare  a  holiday  in  which  he  shall  no 
more  make  that  poor,  weak  and  broken  doctrine  do 
any  labor  or  perform  any  work  until  such  time  as  it 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS         149 

may  escape  from  the  physicians  and  surgeons  who 
are  engaged  in  diagnosing  its  condition,  and  be  re- 
stored to  us  with  the  necessary  amputations  made  ? 
I  suspect  that  he  will,  like  Germany,  go  on  arming, 
though  it  is  better  to  give  up  a  procedure  whose  issue 
is  so  uncertain  for  a  workable  expectation  whose 
outcome  is  assured. 

There  is  another  way.  It  emphasizes  directness 
and  definiteness  of  attack.  The  eminent  jurist  who 
has  just  published  "The  Voice  of  Lincoln" l  writes  : 

During  the  past  year's  study  of  Lincoln  I  have  improved  my 
efficiency  in  handling  a  legal  question  or  a  governmental  problem 
more  than  one  hundred  per  cent  by  following  the  Lincoln 
method.  This  method  he  gives  us  in  his  own  words.  It  is  the 
most  important  declaration  to  my  mind  (though  only  an  inter- 
view) that  Lincoln  ever  made  that  can  be  used  by  the  American 
student. 

First.    To  hunt  for  an  idea  until  I  caught  it. 
Second.     To  repeat  it  over  and  over  again. 
Third.    To  put  it  into  language  plain  enough  for  any  boy 

I  knew  to  comprehend. 
Fourth.     Bound  it  on  the  north,  bound  it  on  the  south,  bound 

it  on  the  east,  bound  it  on  the  west. 
As  we  put  the  Kaiser  out  of  our  schools,  I  am  in  favor  of  putting 

Lincoln  in. 

That  is  specific  education.  It  is  hunting  for 
something  that  one  wants  to  find.  That  something 
must  be  a  definite  something,  not  a  target  of  such 
low  visibility  as  a  general  effect,  before  it  can  be 
hunted  for.  Its  object,  as  Plato  has  phrased  it  for 
all  time,  is  teaching  the  young  the  knowledge  which 
they  will  afterward  require  for  their  art.  As  to 

1  "The  Voice  of  Lincoln,"  by  P.  M.  Wanamaker,  Scribner's,  New 
York. 


150  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

how  that  knowledge  can  best  be  developed,  the  world 
has  been  making  a  colossal  experiment  in  the  last 
three  years,  and  it  finds  that  quick,  purposive,  and 
intensive  training  will  produce  the  trained  trench 
fighter,  the  trained  artillery  man,  the  trained  flying 
man,  the  trained  mechanic,  the  trained  instructor 
or  the  trained  officer  within  a  period  of  from  three 
to  nine  months.  These  results  are  obtained  through 
specific  education.  Every  one  knows  the  objective. 
The  officers  tell  the  men  that  in  their  work  there  are 
no  military  secrets.  Whenever  lessons  are  set  or 
movements  are  undertaken,  the  men  are  let  into  the 
plan  and  from  the  beginning  know  what  it  is  they 
are  trying  to  do  as  well  as  their  leaders.  Each  one  is 
led  by  his  own  intelligence.  Every  undertaking  is 
a  target  which  he  first  sees  and  then  aims  at.  Of 
course,  he  can  accomplish  something  then. 

The  heaviest  count  against  the  doctrine  of  formal 
discipline  is  that  it  makes  such  an  intelligent  pro- 
ceeding impossible,  it  does  not  employ  the  psychology 
of  attention,  it  substitutes  obscurantism  for  clearly 
conceived  purposes,  it  counsels  blindness  and  relies 
upon  indefinite  application  to  produce  results. 
Never  again  can  it  function  as  a  philosophy  of 
education  in  a  world  which  has  learned  to  see  and 
then  to  attack,  to  first  take  aim  and  then  to  shoot, 
and  to  work  by  clearly  understood  objectives  in  all 
that  it  undertakes. 

Of  the  doctrine  that  the  mind  is  an  instrument 
which  must  be  sharpened  before  it  is  used  and  that 
mathematics  is  the  grindstone  upon  which  to  sharpen 
it,  the  eminent  British  mathematician,  Professor 


THE  STUDY  OF  MATHEMATICS          151 

A.  N.  Whitehead,  declares  that  there  is  just  enough 
truth  in  it  to  have  made  it  live  through  the  ages. 

But  for  all  its  half  truth  it  embodies  a  radical  error  which  bids 
fair  to  stifle  the  genius  of  the  modern  world.  .  .  .  Whoever 
was  the  originator,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  authority  which 
it  has  acquired  by  the  continuous  approval  which  it  has  received 
from  eminent  persons.  But  whatever  its  weight  of  authority, 
whatever  the  high  approval  which  it  can  quote,  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  denouncing  it  as  one  of  the  most  fatal,  erroneous  and 
dangerous  conceptions  ever  introduced  into  education. 

That  qualification  of  the  doctrine  of  formal  dis- 
cipline is  sound,  for  the  presence  of  that  doctrine 
in  the  mind  of  the  teacher  robs  the  lesson  of  the 
purposiveness  and  energy  of  specific  endeavor.  It 
takes  away  defmiteness  of  striving  and  reduces 
expectation  to  a  vague  confidence  that  somehow 
the  result  will  come  no  matter  what  is  done  nor  how. 
It  substitutes  a  superstitious  routine  for  direct 
attack  and  leaves  the  student  wearied,  confused, 
disheartened,  making  of  education  a  treadmill  in- 
stead of  an  inspiration,  a  destroyer  of,  instead  of  a 
minister  to,  souls. 


FORMAL   DISCIPLINE   AND    THE    TEACH- 
ING OF  LITERATURE1 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD  speaks  of  having  for  more 
than  twenty  years  gotten  his  living  by  inspecting 
schools  for  the  people  and  of  having  seen  as  he  went 
in  and  out  of  them  that  "the  power  of  letters  never 
reaches  them  at  all."  Yet  he  never  lost  the  con- 
viction that  "to  know  the  best  that  has  been  thought 
and  said  in  the  world  "  is  the  chief  duty  of  man.  For 
such  a  knowledge,  system  in  our  reading  is  necessary, 
he  declared.  Without  system  reading  is  idling. 

Culture  implies  reading,  but  reading  with  a  purpose  to  guide  it 
and  with  system.  He  does  a  good  work  who  does  anything  to 
help  this ;  indeed  it  is  the  one  essential  service  now  to  be  rendered 
to  education. 

Year  by  year  the  conviction  grows  that  the  thing 
which  makes  a  given  form  of  activity  educative  and 
distinguishes  it  from  acts  which  pass  by  that  name, 
but  which  are  not  in  the  slightest  degree  helpful,  is 
its  purpose.  Without  purpose  clearly  conceived  and 
definitely  apprehended  teaching  and  learning  are 
both  impossible.  Unless  one  shoots  at  a  target  he 
does  not  really  learn  to  shoot  but  is  engaged  instead 
merely  in  making  a  noise  with  the  gun.  In  recent  days 
we  have  been  learning  to  look  upon  the  difficulties 

lAn  address  before  the  New  England  Association  of  Teachers  of 
English,  Boston,  March  17,  1917. 

152 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  LITERATURE    153 

which  young  people  have  in  getting  an  education  and 
their  remarkable  lack  of  interest  in  either  the  whole 
or  in  certain  parts  of  that  process,  and  the  aimless 
dreaminess  which  they  show  and  the  stupidity  which 
they  exhibit  as  due  to  our  habit  of  setting  up  targets 
of  low  visibility  for  them  rather  than  to  any  lack 
of  mental  energy  or  moral  vigor  on  their  part.  We 
begin  to  see  quite  clearly  that  in  so  far  as  we  have 
failed  to  invite  them  to  keenly  purposeful  activity,  we 
have  been  guilty  of  habituating  them  to  slothful 
indifference,  purposeless  work,  aimless  achieving  and 
disorganizing  and  spiritless  effort.  Under  such  tui- 
tion they  do  not  learn  to  use  their  minds  but  rather 
to  misuse  them.  The  effort  to  make  education 
purposeful  is  therefore  nothing  short  of  an  attempt 
to  save  souls.  It  seeks  to  substitute  for  the  letter 
which  deadens,  the  spirit  which  augments  life.  It 
opposes  to  routinary  lessons  whose  objective  no  one 
comprehends,  lessons  whose  aim  is  so  specific  that 
every  student  will  feel  the  challenge  to  show  his 
ability  and  perfect  his  skill  in  them.  Such  teaching 
will  not  turn  out  washed-out,  confused  and  in- 
articulate-minded graduates.  Instead  it  will  say  to 
the  student  from  his  first  day  to  his  last  in  school : 
"You  are  here  to  learn  to  do  certain  things  which 
the  race  has  found  that  it  can  not  live  without  doing. 
Every  lesson  has  a  specific  aim,  which  you  are  first 
to  see  and  then  if  possible  to  accomplish.  The  ques- 
tion for  you  at  all  stages  of  your  course  is,  Can  you 
do  these  socially  necessary  things?"  Such  a  recon- 
struction of  our  purposes  as  will  permit  the  student 
to  become  a  conscious  developer  of  indispensable  skill 


154  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

in  the  several  human  arts  which  are  the  basic  tools 
of  life  nowadays  is  the  reform  which  is  now  on  foot 
in  education. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  warrant  for  this  effort. 
Ours  is  the  scientific  age  and  scientific  method  has 
approved  itself  as  perhaps  the  most  valuable  tool 
which  the  race  possesses.  Science  is  not  aimless 
groping.  Its  first  step  is  not  the  accumulating  of 
facts.  Francis  Bacon  said  it  was,  but  none  of  the 
great  discoverers  has  been  able  to  work  that  way. 
The  scientist  begins  with  a  problem,  his  finding  is 
due  to  a  purpose.  Learning  for  him  is  not  the  ac- 
cumulation of  facts  but  the  purposeful  accumula- 
tion of  facts. 

There  is  a  very  significant  passage  in  the  last  writ- 
ten utterance  of  Professor  Miinsterberg.  It  reads  : 

When  the  telegram  of  the  Fatherland  arrived,  asking  for  a 
holiday  greeting  as  a  contribution  to  the  Christmas  number,  I 
was  sitting  in  my  psychological  laboratory  with  a  group  of 
students  engaged  in  a  complicated  psychological  research.  We 
were  just  experimenting  on  some  subtle  functions  of  the  human 
memory,  studying  the  conditions  under  which  man  remembers 
and  forgets.  Some  of  the  results  were  very  queer.  We  found 
that  the  mind  does  not  lose  its  memory  ideas  in  a  mechanical  way, 
but  that  everything  depends  upon  purposes ;  ideas  which  are 
gathered  with  a  certain  aim  quickly  fade  away  when  the  motive 
is  no  longer  effective. 

Psychologists  tell  us  that  a  problem  or  purpose 
persists  in  its  influence,  directing  and  systematizing 
our  mental  behavior  for  a  long  time.  By  its  aid  we 
see  what  would  otherwise  pass  unnoted,  associa- 
tive tendencies  are  aroused  and  "the  sentiment  of 
the  end"  leads  to  logical  thought.  There  is  in  all 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND   LITERATURE     155 

working  to  attain  purposes  a  far  keener  consciousness 
of  the  self  than  in  less  definite  labor,  an  "I  really 
will"  state  rather  than  an  "I  will"  condition  of  mind 
being  set  up  by  the  challenge  of  the  problem.1 

The  whole  modern  movement  for  efficiency  may  be 
regarded  as  an  effort  to  define  the  task  which  the 
worker  seeks  to  perform.  That,  at  any  rate,  is  the 
first  step  in  its  better  performance.  When  we  know 
quite  clearly  what  is  to  be  done,  the  means  of  doing 
it  will  disclose  themselves  much  more  unequivocally 
than  when  we  have  only  a  vague  notion  of  what  it 
is  we  are  undertaking. 

All  this  applies  just  as  directly  to  studying  as  it 
does  to  carrying  pig  iron.  To  be  effective  it  must  be 
definitely  purposeful,  it  must  call  forth  the  activity 
of  the  student  by  offering  a  definite  problem  to  be 
worked  out  by  his  searching,  selecting  and  inter- 
preting. It  must  tax  his  ability  to  organize  its 
matter  and  allow  him  opportunities  to  perform  on 
his  own  responsibility  the  several  acts  upon  the 
subject  which  occupies  him  that  the  race  finds  it 
necessary  to  perform  when  it  uses  that  subject. 
When  he  learns  to  swim,  he  must  do  so  by  swimming. 
When  he  studies  carpentry,  he  must  do  the  things 
which  a  carpenter  does.  When  he  studies  chemistry, 
he  must  perform  the  processes  which  a  chemist  em- 
ploys. When  he  studies  geology,  he  must  himself 
geologize.  When  he  pursues  psychology,  his  purpose 
and  method  must  be  to  psychologize,  and  when  he 
studies  literature,  his  sole  aim  is  to  learn  to  use  it. 


the  Chapter  on  The  Problem  or  Purpose  in  "Movement  and 
Mental  Imagery,"  by  Margaret  Floy  Washburn,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 


156  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

This  point  of  view  that  we  pursue  studies  for  their 
definite  and  clearly  comprehended  utilities,  requires 
us  to  abandon  at  least  two  other  attitudes  toward 
them.  It  seeks  to  abolish  the  distinction  which  Aris- 
totle made  between  theoretical  and  practical  knowl- 
edge, when  he  divided  knowing  into  two  kinds  — 
knowing  for  the  sake  of  knowing  —  that  is  knowing 
wholly  unmixed  with  volition  —  and  knowing  for 
the  sake  of  doing.  Knowing  for  the  sake  of  knowing 
is  the  disinterested  contemplation  of  that  which  is 
for  no  other  reason  than  simply  to  know  it.  Knowing 
for  the  sake  of  doing  has  for  its  object  a  human 
interference  with  the  course  of  events,  controlling 
the  environment  by  reacting  to  it  in  ways  serviceable 
to  ourselves,  making  things  come  our  way  or  if  not 
that,  anticipating  their  way  and  keeping  out  of  their 
path  when  they  menace  us.  Such  a  separation  of 
intellect  from  volition  as  Aristotle  made  in  distin- 
guishing these  two  kinds  of  knowing  finds  little  to 
support  it  in  modern  psychology.  The  nervous 
system  is  an  action  system  rather  than  a  device  for  the 
production  of  knowledge.  The  sensory  nerves  run 
into  motor  nerves ;  the  brain  is  a  switchboard  whose 
function  it  is  to  make  appropriate  connections. 

Perhaps  no  justification  of  literature  is  commoner 
than  that  it  exists  for  its  own  sake.  We  are  told 
over  and  over  again  that  we  must  study  it  just  be- 
cause it  is  literature  just  as  we  are  told  that  we  must 
study  science  for  the  sake  of  science,  art  for  the  sake 
of  art,  knowledge  for  the  sake  of  knowledge.  I 
have  heard  these  statements  and  their  several 
variants  as  often  as  one  is  apt  to  who  spends  his 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  LITERATURE    157 

days  in  college  work,  but  I  confess  that  no  single 
glimmer  of  their  meaning  has  ever  been  vouchsafed 
to  me.  I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  understand  why 
they  have  such  a  consolatory  effect  upon  so  many 
otherwise  intelligent  people.  Science,  literature  and 
every  other  form  of  knowledge  is  man-made.  We  are 
forbidden  to  worship  the  creations  of  man's  hands, 
for  that  is  idolatry.  Are  not  prostrations  before 
the  creations  of  his  mind  just  as  harmful?  The 
practice  of  setting  up  images  of  wood  and  stone  and 
of  bowing  down  before  them  has  ceased  almost  every- 
where, but  the  practice  of  hypostatizing  ideas  and 
worshiping  them  has  not  ceased,  but  is  even  to-day 
far  more  destructive  of  human  life,  it  would  seem, 
than  all  the  other  forms  of  idolatry  that  ever  existed, 
for  the  German  worship  of  that  hyper-metaphysical 
entity,  the  self-existing  state,  is,  as  you  know,  a 
religion  which  calls  for  much  human  sacrifice.  To 
hypostatize  science  or  literature  may  not  be  as 
bloody  a  business,  but  it  is  very  destructive  of  young 
lives.  I  am  satisfied  that  the  man  who  says  that 
literature  exists  for  its  own  sake  has  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  puzzle  himself  as  to  what  that  phrase  may 
mean.  He  relies  on  words  where  he  ought  to  employ 
thoughts,  and  students  whom  I  know  seem  to  have  as 
much  difficulty  in  working  themselves  into  the  state 
of  devotion  which  this  formula  demands  as  I  have. 
One  very  grave  difficulty  with  literature  worship  is 
that  it  is  polytheistic  and  its  gods,  like  those  of  ancient 
Rome,  are  more  numerous  than  their  worshipers,  so 
that  a  truly  devout  member  of  its  cult  must  be  un- 
ceasingly engaged  in  making  prostrations  and  doing 


158  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

reverence  or  he  will  fail  in  his  duty.  I  think  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  something  very  like  a  liturgical 
familiarity  with  authors  and  their  works  is  prescribed 
in  certain  quarters.  I  went  into  a  classroom  a  few 
days  ago  and  was  there  just  long  enough  to  hear 
the  question,  What  striking  differences  are  there 
between  "The  Essay  on  Man"  and  "The  Essay 
on  Criticism"?  addressed  to  a  class  of  young 
people  whose  members  had  read  neither  of  those 
productions. 

It  is,  I  believe,  a  far  more  wholesome  view  and  al- 
together more  helpful  to  the  young  that  literature 
and  art  and  science  and  every  other  form  of  knowl- 
edge exist  for  man's  sake  and  came  into  being  for  no 
other  reason  than  to  serve  him.  When  we  take 
that  view,  we  become  able  to  select  that  which  is 
helpful  from  that  which  is  less  helpful.  We  open 
the  door  to  a  reasonable  procedure  and  can  deter- 
mine what  we  shall  teach  and  why  we  shall  teach  it 
and  how  we  shall  teach  it  in  terms  of  human  need 
and  gain. 

The  other  doctrine  which  must  be  reckoned  with 
before  the  teaching  of  literature  or  any  other  subject 
can  become  a  purposive  undertaking  is  the  doctrine 
of  formal  or  general  discipline.  There  is  a  passage  in 
Browning's  "chat"  which  prefaces  his  translation 
of  the  Agamemnon  of  ^Eschylus  in  which  he  says : 

Learning  Greek  teaches  Greek,  and  nothing  else;  certainly 
not  common  sense  if  that  have  failed  to  precede  the  teaching. 

That  is  the  question,  does  teaching  literature  teach 
literature  and  nothing  else  or  does  teaching  literature 
develop  the  faculties  of  the  mind  and  improve  our 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND   LITERATURE    159 

thinking  powers  in  general?  In  the  old  days  the 
answer  to  this  question  was  that  learning  is  specific. 
No  justification  except  its  utility  had  to  be  found  for 
teaching  anything  as  long  as  its  value  was  clearly 
evident.  No  one  had  to  offer  the  argument  that  the 
study  of  Latin  and  Greek  improves  the  faculties  of 
the  mind  as  long  as  Latin  and  Greek  were  the  lan- 
guages of  learning;  but  when  men  ceased  to  learn 
what  they  learned  in  them  new  reasons  had  to  be 
assigned  for  continuing  to  study  them,  bad  reasons 
to  justify  what  they  did  from  habit.  It  was  about 
1750  that  the  realists,  champions  of  new  studies, 
the  native  language,  the  surrounding  things  of 
nature,  man's  life  here  and  now,  pressed  the  teachers 
of  the  classics  so  near  to  the  wall,  that  they  had  in 
self-defense  to  extemporize  a  new  justification  for  an 
outworn  practice.  The  justification  that  they  hit 
upon  was  that  while  the  old  studies  were  no  longer 
directly  useful  they  must  be  retained  because  they 
improve  the  faculties  of  the  mind.  This  doctrine 
was  made  in  Germany.  Its  antidote  also  came  from 
Germany,  when  Herbart,  the  psychologist,  made  the 
discovery  that  there  are  no  faculties  in  the  mind, 
that  each  one  of  us  has  no  such  thing  as  a  memory, 
but  a  hundred  memories,  no  such  thing  as  an  im- 
agination, but  ten  thousand  imaginings,  no  such 
thing  as  a  faculty  of  reason,  but  many  different  acts 
of  reasoning. 

If  the  psychologists  abandoned  the  faculty  psy- 
chology nearly  a  hundred  years  ago,  why  do  teachers 
retain  it  still  ?  The  answer  is  not  to  the  credit  of 
teachers.  Many  investigations  have  been  made  in 


160  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

recent  years  to  determine  exactly  what  effect  study- 
ing one  thing  has  upon  the  doing  of  something  else, 
like  Professor  James's  effort  to  determine  what  help 
he  got  in  memorizing  one  of  Victor  Hugo's  poems 
by  training  himself  through  memorizing  the  first 
book  of  Milton's  * '  Paradise  Lost. ' '  He  found  that  he 
memorized  Victor  Hugo  more  slowly  after  the  train- 
ing than  before  it.  Some  experimenters  have  found 
that  the  test  series  is  performed  more  successfully 
after  practice  training  than  before  it  and  therefore 
claim  that  we  do  one  thing  better  because  of  having 
learned  to  do  another,  that  is,  that  skill  or  training  is 
transferred  from  one  context  to  another.  The  ques- 
tion is  what  is  meant  by  the  transfer  of  training  ?  If 
one  learns  to  drive  a  Packard  car  he  can  also  drive  a 
Stanley  steamer,  that  is,  the  skill  in  guiding  the  one 
car  will  be  available  in  guiding  the  other,  for  thus 
far  the  two  tasks  are  identical ;  but  if  engine  trouble 
develops  in  his  Stanley  steamer  will  his  familiarity 
with  the  Packard  motor  tell  him  what  to  do  or  will  he 
require  a  special  knowledge  of  the  steam  car?  I 
think  you  can  see  that  as  long  as  the  novel  situation 
is  recognizably  the  same  as  the  familiar  one  it  requires 
the  same  reaction  or  nearly  the  same  reaction  on 
his  part  and  that  there  is  no  transfer  of  skill,  but 
only  a  repeating  of  acts  already  learned.  But  when 
the  identical  reaction  will  not  do,  a  new  method  of 
handling  the  situation  must  be  learned.  If  one 
tries  to  treat  a  steam  engine  as  he  has  learned  to 
handle  a  gas  engine  his  knowledge  of  the  gas  engine 
will  be  an  interfering  rather  than  a  facilitating  factor. 
Knowing  how  to  drive  an  electric  automobile  does 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  LITERATURE    161 

not  enable  one  to  drive  a  Packard  or  a  Ford.  Though 
there  is  much  that  is  identical  in  the  two  tasks  there 
is  much  that  is  different. 

Now  strictly  speaking  we  must  not  call  the 
repeating  of  an  act  already  learned  a  transfer  of 
training.  "In  the  literal  sense,"  says  Professor 
Dewey,  "any  transfer  is  miraculous  and  impossible. 
But  some  activities  are  broad  —  they  involve  a 
coordination  of  many  factors."  "It  would  be, 
perhaps,  nearer  the  truth,"  says  Pyle,  "to  say  that 
all  habits  are  specific,  but  that  some  of  the  situations 
in  which  a  habit  is  applicable  are  universal."  If  we 
take  this  view  that  any  transfer  is  miraculous,  but 
that  specific  forms  of  skill  when  once  acquired  can 
be  repeated  whenever  the  situation  is  not  too  novel 
to  call  them  forth,  we  must  abandon  general  dis- 
cipline altogether  and  devote  ourselves  to  the 
humbler,  but  far  more  profitable,  task  of  teaching 
those  forms  of  specific  skill  which  have  clear  and 
definite  applications  in  life  and  to  teaching  them  in 
connection  with  their  applications. 

The  validity  of  this  position  is,  I  think,  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  investigators  commonly  explain  the 
so-called  transfer  which  they  find  as  due  to  the 
presence  of  identical  elements  in  the  training  and  the 
test  series.  And  why  is  it  that  many  experimenters 
upon  this  subject  have  failed  to  find  in  their  results 
any  warrant  whatever  for  the  doctrine  of  general 
discipline  ?  Such  is  clearly  the  conclusion  of  the  last 
experiment  which  has  been  conducted  in  the  division 
of  education  at  Harvard,  and  such  is  Professor 
Spearman's  conclusion  from  the  elaborate  experi- 


162  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

ments  which  Dr.  Sleight  conducted.  "The  great 
assumption  upon  which  education  has  rested  for  so 
many  centuries,"  he  writes,  "is  now  at  last  rendered 
amenable  to  experimental  corroboration  —  and  it 
proves  to  be  false."  If  further  confirmation  is 
needed,  it  may  be  had  in  abundance  by  any  one  who 
will  take  the  trouble  to  puzzle  out  the  questions  :  why 
is  it  that  inventions  are  so  rare?  and  how  can  it  be 
that  studies  will  provide  a  general  education  for 
youth  when  they  do  nothing  but  turn  adults  into 
specialists  ?  It  is  asking  far  too  much  to  insist  that 
investigators  of  this  subject  should  agree  in  either 
their  findings  or  their  conclusions  from  them.  Their 
verdict  can  not  be  unanimous,  but  what  they  have 
already  done  puts  a  decided  cloud  upon  the  whole 
theory  that  we  must  learn  to  do  one  thing  by  doing 
another,  and  makes  it  impossible  any  longer  to  build 
a  philosophy  of  education  upon  the  uncertain  ground 
of  formal  discipline.  There  are  far  better  reasons 
for  studying  literature  than  for  the  sake  of  literature 
or  for  the  sake  of  the  general  discipline  derived  there- 
by. There  are  specific  reasons  for  studying  it,  and 
specific  objects  of  a  very  definite  sort  to  be  attained 
by  that  study.  What  they  are  you  who  are  quite 
familiar  with  it  know  far  better  than  I  do. 

You  will  recall  that  passage  in  Plato's  "Republic" 
where  he  gives  as  his  reason  for  objecting  to  some  of 
Homer's  stories  about  the  gods  and  about  the  after 
life  that  "a  young  person  can  not  judge  what  is 
allegorical  and  what  is  literal;  anything  that  he 
receives  into  his  mind  at  that  age  is  likely  to  become 
indelible  and  unalterable;  and  therefore  it  is  most 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  LITERATURE    163 

important  that  the  tales  which  the  young  first  hear 
should  be  models  of  virtuous  thoughts." 

And  we  must  beg  Homer  and  the  other  poets  not  to  be  angry 
if  we  strike  out  these  and  similar  passages,  not  because  they  are 
unpoetical  or  unattractive  to  the  popular  ear,  but  because  the 
greater  the  poetical  charm  of  them,  the  less  are  they  meet  for 
the  ears  of  boys  and  men  who  are  meant  to  be  free,  and  who 
should  fear  slavery  more  than  death.1 

I  can  not  but  believe  that  no  matter  how  long  the 
world  may  last  and  poems  and  stories  be  written, 
this  will  be  the  last  word  as  to  their  meaning.  They 
are  meant  to  be  models  of  virtuous  thoughts,  meet  for 
the  ears  of  boys  and  men  who  are  meant  to  be  free 
and  who  should  fear  slavery  more  than  death. 

The  poet's  power  is  a  greater  power  than  the 
scientist's  or  the  historian's,  yet  he  deals  with  the 
same  subject  matter  that  they  handle  and  he 
addresses  the  same  audience.  All  the  products  of 
human  thinking  are  on  their  way  to  his  mill.  He  is 
the  master-revealer  of  their  significance,  a  trans- 
former whose  mission  it  is  forever  to  compel  the 
mind  to  the  uncommonness  of  the  commonplace. 
His  it  is  to  keep  the  Green  Meadow  where  there  are 
samples  of  lives.  Xenophon  makes  Nicerates  say : 

My  father  designing  to  make  a  virtuous  man  of  me  caused 
me  to  get  every  verse  of  Homer  by  heart.2 

One  may  question  the  effectiveness  of  the  method, 
but  he  can  not  well  question  the  purpose  which 
prompted  the  study  of  Homer.  Strabo  reports 
Eratosthenes  as  saying  that  the  poet  directs  his  whole 

1  Republic,  387.  2  Banquet  III . 


164  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

attention  to  the  amusement  of  the  mind,  that  is,  that 
the  mission  of  literature  is  to  please.  But  in 
opposition  to  that  idea  Strabo  declares  that 

The  ancients  define  poetry  as  a  primitive  philosophy  guiding 
our  life  from  infancy  and  pleasantly  regulating  our  morals,  our 
tastes  and  our  actions.  ...  On  this  account  the  earliest  lessons 
which  the  citizens  of  Greece  convey  to  then-  children  are  from 
the  poets ;  certainly  not  alone  for  the  purpose  of  amusing  their 
minds,  but  for  their  instruction.1 

We  study  literature  to-day  because  the  Greeks 
in  their  wisdom  made  it  a  permanent  part  of  the 
course  of  study  of  all  civilized  people.  And  we 
study  it  for  essentially  the  same  reasons  as  they. 
They  were  wiser  than  we  in  making  much  of  the 
reading  of  the  poets  and  they  were  wiser  than  we  in 
making  much  of  the  content  of  literature  and  little 
of  its  form.  When  the  Romans  came  to  study  it, 
they  applied  the  linguistic  methods  of  the  Alexan- 
drians to  it.  They  had  to  master  a  foreign  language 
and  that  together  with  their  devotion  to  the  art  of 
making  speeches  made  them  acutely  conscious  about 
style  and  the  formal  aspects  of  the  writings  which 
they  studied.  When  antiquity  arose  from  the 
dead  the  first  book  on  education  which  our  renais- 
sance parents  unearthed  was  Quintilian's  "Institutes 
of  Oratory"  and  out  of  that  they  made  their  edu- 
cation and  ours  too,  for  ours  has  come  down  from 
them.  Our  education  is  Roman,  therefore,  rather 
than  Greek,  and  our  practice  of  studying  literature 
grammatically  rather  than  interpretatively  follows 
the  defects  of  the  Roman  practice  rather  than  the 

1  Introduction  to  the  Geography  I-II-III. 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  LITERATURE    165 

superior  virtues  of  the  Greek.  There  is  little  neces- 
sity for  employing  the  Roman  machinery  of  literary 
manipulation.  There  is  much  more  to  be  said  for 
the  interpretative  method  of  the  Greeks.  It  is 
hardly  more  necessary  to  mix  up  linguistics  with  the 
study  of  literature  than  it  is  to  mix  up  linguistics 
with  the  study  of  history  or  science.  The  force  and 
directness  of  the  primitive  philosophy  which  the 
ancients  said  that  literature  is,  is  obscured  by  that 
practice.  Again,  "to  know  the  best  that  has  been 
thought  and  said  in  the  world"  we  shall  have  to  be 
familiar  with  the  literature  of  the  world ;  it  is  not 
enough  to  study  English  literature.  I  have  long 
wondered  why  we  do  not  introduce  our  students  to 
the  world's  greatest  books  instead  of  confining  our- 
selves so  largely  to  those  that  have  been  written  in 
English. 

Plato  must  still  be  our  guide  and  adviser.  We 
must  follow  the  example  which  he  set  us  of  very 
carefully  selecting  the  lessons  which  we  would 
have  children  study  and  learn. 


FORMAL    DISCIPLINE    AND    THE    STUDY 
OF  THE  CLASSICS 

THERE  is  evidence  that  the  war  which  has  been 
raging  has  spread  beyond  the  battlefields  of  Europe 
to  the  ramparts  of  education.  If  controversy  develops 
and  can  develop  only  about  unsettled  matters, 
the  place  of  the  classics  seems  to  be  of  that  order, 
for  they  exact  a  deal  of  active  support  from  their 
upholders  now-a-days.  No  fewer  than  three  defenses 
of  them,  all  of  relatively  recent  date,  are  on  my 
table.  One  is  the  address  on  "  The  Worth  of  Ancient 
Literature  to  the  Modern  World"  by  Viscount 
Bryce  in  the  Fortnightly  Review.1  Another  occupies 
a  full  page  of  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript  and  is 
headed:  "Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  in  Defense 
of  Classical  Learning  —  An  eloquent  appeal  for  a 
return  to  the  humanities  by  way  of  escape  from  the 
hard  practical  training  that  has  ruined  Europe."2 
The  third  is  Professor  Shorey's  "The  Assault  on 
Humanism"  which  runs  through  two  numbers  of 
the  Atlantic.3  There  must  be  a  reason  for  such  a 
concourse  of  mighty  champions.  We  can  hardly 
assume  that,  like  Germany,  they  are  engaged  in 
defending  a  homeland  which  had  not  been  attacked. 

'April,  1917.    Since  republished  by  the  General  Education  Board. 
2  June  2,  1917.     In  the  volume  of  proceedings  of  the  Princeton  Con- 
ference, "  The  Value  of  the  Classics,"  Princeton  University  Press. 
1  June  and  July  1917.    Reprinted  as  an  "Atlantic  Classic." 

186 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    167 

At  any  rate,  there  are  few  signs  of  the  times  more 
encouraging  than  that  "the  languages,"  both  in 
Europe  and  America,  are  on  the  defensive  and  that 
their  heaviest  artillery  is  brought  up  to  protect 
them.  What  kind  of  a  defense  do  these  master 
artillerists  make?  Not  a  well-concerted  one,  as  a 
comparative  study  will  show. 

First,  their  statements  are  divergent.  Professor 
Shorey  attempts  to  show  "why  your  boy  should  cer- 
tainly study  Latin  if  he  is  going  to  college,  and  prob- 
ably, if  he  is  going  to  complete  a  high  school  course." 
Viscount  Bryce  is  more  moderate.  "It  is  generally 
admitted  that  at  the  universities  the  present  system 
can  not  be  maintained.  Even  of  those  who  enter 
Oxford  or  Cambridge,  many  have  not  the  capacity 
or  the  taste  to  make  it  worth  while  for  them  to  devote 
much  time  there  to  Greek  and  Latin.  The  real 
practical  problem  for  all  our  universities  is  this : 
How  are  we  to  find  means  by  which  the  study,  while 
dropped  for  those  who  will  never  make  much  of  it, 
may  be  retained  and  forever  securely  maintained  for 
that  percentage  of  our  youth,  be  it  20  or  30  per  cent, 
or  be  it  more,  who  will  draw  sufficient  mental  nourish- 
ment and  stimulus  from  the  study  to  make  it  an 
effective  factor  in  their  intellectual  growth  and  an 
unceasing  spring  of  enjoyment  through  the  rest  of 
life?  ....  We  shall  effect  a  saving  if  we  drop 
that  study  of  the  ancient  languages  in  the  case  of 
those  who  after  a  trial  show  no  aptitude  for  them. 
But  means  must  be  devised  whereby  that  study  shall, 
while  made  more  profitable  through  better  methods, 
be  placed  in  a  position  of  such  honor  and  importance 


168  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

as  will  secure  its  being  prosecuted  by  those  who  are 
capable  of  receiving  from  it  the  benefits  it  is  fitted 
to  confer."  Here  is  a  distinction  of  first-rate  im- 
portance which  neither  Professor  Shorey  nor  Senator 
Lodge  seems  to  have  grasped. 

In  the  classics,  Senator  Lodge  thinks  he  has  found 
the  philosopher's  stone  of  education,  for  he  declares 
that  the  dominant  purpose  of  all  education  is  to 
teach  the  boy  or  girl  "so  to  control  their  minds  that 
they  can  apply  them  to  any  subject  of  study  and 
especially  to  a  subject  which  it  is  a  duty  and  not  a 
pleasure  to  master  and  understand.  When  this 
power  to  use  the  mind  is  once  thoroughly  attained, 
the  boy  or  girl  can  then  learn  anything  which  his  or 
her  mind  is  capable  of  receiving  or  acquiring.  .  .  . 
I  think  we  may  also  agree  that  as  any  form  of  exercise 
will  develop  some  muscles  and  some  forms  will 
develop  all,  so  any  kind  of  study,  properly  pursued, 
whether  it  is  arithmetic  or  Sanscrit,  will  develop  the 
muscles  of  the  mind  and  give  it  the  power  of  con- 
tinuous application  by  a  mere  exercise  of  the  will." 

That  is  the  ancient  doctrine  of  formal  discipline 
in  its  nakedness.  It  is  not  irrelevant  to  ask  if  there 
ever  really  have  been  youths  or  maidens  anywhere 
who  have  learned  so  to  control  their  minds  that  they 
could  apply  them  to  any  study  whatsoever  ?  Would 
not  that  be  a  misfortune  rather  than  a  blessing? 
And  what  are  those  forms  of  exercise  which  will 
develop  all  the  muscles  of  the  body?  Senator 
Lodge  has  evidently  never  burnt  his  fingers  upon 
this  much  controverted  educational  dogma.  Pro- 
fessor Shorey  has,  and  is  altogether  more  wary  of  it. 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    169 

"Whatever  some  foolish  advocates  of  the  classics 
may  have  sometimes  said,  the  systematic  exaggera- 
tion of  the  value  of  merely  disciplinary  or  gymnastic 
study  is  no  essential  element  in  our  unwillingness  to 
have  American  education  regulated  out  of  hand  by 
experts  who  hate  'Lycidas*  and  think  'Comus'  a 
bore.  It  is  not  true  that  the  schools  of  to-day  are 
dominated  by  the  ideal  of  formal  discipline."  We  are 
grateful  to  Professor  Shorey  for  the  first  concession, 
but  in  the  last  statement  we  think  he  is  mistaken.  He 
rests  his  assertion  upon  "the  actual  curricula  of  the 
schools  and  the  statistics  of  election,"  but  greater 
familiarity  with  the  doctrine  would  have  shown  him 
that  formal  discipline  is  not  an  adjective  which 
applies  to  subjects,  but  a  method;  or,  rather,  the 
absence  of  all  method  —  of  studying  them.  There 
are  no  subjects  which  must  be  treated  in  that  fashion. 
It  is  simply  a  mistaken  way  in  which  mistaken 
teachers  may  teach  all  subjects  whatsoever  if  they 
have  never  taken  pains  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  better  philosophy  of  education.  That  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  teachers  in  elementary  schools, 
high  schools  and  colleges  still  wander  in  the  limbo 
of  this  superstition  will  be  evident  to  Professor 
Shorey  if  he  takes  pains  to  visit  their  classrooms  or 
to  question  them  upon  the  faith  which  is  in  them. 

Again,  we  are  not  at  all  sure  that  with  all  his  dis- 
claiming Professor  Shorey  is  not  of  their  number 
himself.  There  is  a  curious  kind  of  taking  back 
what  he  says  in  one  part  of  his  article  in  later  parts 
of  it  and  a  curious  inability  to  write  about  the  dogma 
of  formal  discipline  as  though  he  understood  it.  He 


170  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

avers  that  Mr.  Flexner's  main  contention  is  "that 
psychological  and  educational  science  does  not  rec- 
ognize any  such  thing  as  mental  discipline."  That 
surely  is  an  overstatement.  Neither  Mr.  Flexner, 
nor  any  other  man,  who  has  not  lost  his  wits,  talks 
in  that  way.  There  are  two  kinds  of  mental  dis- 
cipline, general  and  specific.  The  controversy  is 
not  about  the  reality  of  mental  discipline,  but  about 
the  reality  of  general  mental  discipline.  No  educator 
could  work  at  his  trade  a  minute  longer  if  he  denied 
the  reality  of  specific  mental  discipline.  If  we  do  not 
learn  what  we  study,  why  study  at  all?  But  that 
surely  is  very  different  from  saying  that  we  learn  one 
thing  by  studying  another.  It  is  quite  true  that  the 
technical  testimony  of  science  in  respect  to  the 
irradiation  of  acquired  faculty  in  the  more  elementary 
processes  of  the  mind  is  still  under  debate,  but  that 
debate  has  already  proceeded  far  enough  to  show 
that  the  irradiation  which  takes  place,  if  it  takes 
place  at  all,  is  of  but  very  limited  value  and  by  no 
means  supplies  a  foundation  for  a  theory  of  edu- 
cation. The  further  investigation  of  the  question : 
To  what  extent  does  such  irradiation  take  place?  is 
an  interesting  problem  for  those  investigators  who 
believe  that  psychological  questions  can  be  made  to 
take  mathematical  answers  if  pursued  long  enough, 
but  is  of  no  practical  significance  to  educators,  for 
the  proof  is  already  overwhelming  that  a  philosophy 
of  education  simply  cannot  be  built  upon  this 
quicksand.  It  is  not  true  that  the  experimental 
study  of  the  dogma  of  general  discipline  has  nothing 
to  contribute  "to  the  practical  purpose  of  estimating 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    171 

the  general  disciplinary  value  of  high  school  and 
collegiate  studies."  Upon  that  point  Professor  Spear- 
man is  a  more  competent  witness.  The  essential  con- 
sideration is  not  the  number  of  elements  in  common 
between  the  mastery  of  Latin  grammar  or  vocabulary 
and  other  desirable  kinds  of  knowledge ;  the  essential 
consideration  is :  Under  what  conditions  is  the 
learner  likely  to  recognize  that  a  form  of  activity  is 
called  for  in  the  new  situation  which  he  is  already 
familiar  with  in  his  studying  of  Latin  grammar ;  i.e., 
under  what  conditions  will  his  new  problem  key  off  or 
call  forth  his  old  familiar  response?  The  answer  is 
that  the  new  situation  will  call  forth  the  old  response 
only  when  he  sees  it  as  a  new  case  demanding  a  like 
treatment.  He  will  be  able  to  bring  it  under  a 
familiar  classification  only  when  the  familiar  context 
has  plenty  of  middle  terms  in  common  with  the  new. 
The  reason  why  Latin  grammar  is  a  poor  training  in 
analyzing  is  because  the  material  which  one  learns 
to  analyze  there  is  so  unrelated  to  almost  everything 
which  he  will  ever  be  called  upon  to  analyze  again. 
It  is  non-representative  material.  The  more  one 
studies  it  the  more  his  attention  is  diverted  to  that 
sort  of  thing,  and  the  more  of  a  specialist  in  that  he 
becomes.  Those  who  get  comfort  in  believing  that 
science  leaves  this  question  just  where  it  found  it; 
that  is,  "to  the  adjudication  of  common  sense,"  are 
surely  welcome  to  their  conclusion.  Only  they 
should  be  a  bit  more  careful  not  to  describe  it  as 
intelligent  or  to  believe  that  it  is  perfectly  well 
known  to  competent  psychologists.  It  is  a  play 
upon  words  to  say  that  science  has  not  pronounced 


172  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

a  definitive  verdict.  Its  verdicts  are  rarely,  or 
never,  definitive.  Witness,  for  example,  the  Dar- 
winian hypothesis  or  the  lack  of  a  definitive  history 
of  the  Greeks.  In  this  case,  as  in  those,  there  is  an 
overwhelming  mass  of  evidence  which  lends  a  strong 
presumption  that  upon  this  point  Professor  Shorey 
is  wrong. 

It  is  begging  the  question  to  say  that  "the  dead  set 
against  'mental  discipline'  is  polemics,  not  science." 
It  is  mere  rhetoric  to  dismiss  the  protest  against  the 
faculty  psychology  as  "the  most  intolerable  of 
twentieth  century  commonplaces."  A  professional 
student  of  words  and  their  ways  should  be  more 
careful  not  to  misunderstand  eminent  psychologists, 
like  Lloyd  Morgan,  who  discuss  education  in  terms 
of  mental  faculties.  The  words  may  be  the  same 
as  Professor  Shorey  uses  and  the  thought  quite 
different.  It  may  not  make  the  slightest  difference 
to  secondary  or  collegiate  education  whether  the 
so-called  faculties  of  the  mind  "exist  in  separate 
form,"  but  it  does  make  the  greatest  difference 
whether  or  not  they  exist  at  all  or  are  only  a  figure 
of  speech.  Referring  to  the  metaphysical  problem 
of  the  many  and  the  one,  lends  but  slight  assurance. 
For  purposes  of  education  we  must  deal  with  the 
activities  of  mind,  which  are  many,  and  acquiring 
skill  in  any  one  of  them  will  not  provide  us  with  skill 
in  general  or  skill  other  than  that  which  we  have 
specifically  acquired.  The  burden  of  Professor 
Shorey's  contention  seems  to  be  that  we  can  learn 
by  wholesale  if  we  will  only  study  Latin.  He, 
like  Senator  Lodge,  scorns  to  be  a  mere  retail  trader 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    173 

in  the  market  places  of  education.  He  teaches  a 
preferred  subject  and  plays  lightly  with  great  names 
and  holy  words  to  conceal  its  identity.  Stripped  of 
appealing  verbosity  —  and,  may  I  say,  of  skillful 
sophistry  —  its  name,  which  escapes  him  but  once 
according  to  my  penciling,  is  linguistic  analysis,  or 
Latin  grammar. 

These  defenders  of  the  classics  agree  that  it  is 
their  message  to  the  heart  of  man  which  constitutes 
their  supreme  claim  upon  us ;  they  portray  for  us  the 
life  which  our  ancestors  lived  in  antiquity;  their 
hopes  and  fears,  their  triumphs  and  their  cares,  stir 
our  emotions,  and  purify  and  harmonize  our  thoughts. 
In  this  way  they  help  us  to  a  knowledge  of  ourselves 
and  of  folks  about  us  and,  because  they  generate 
within  us  wholesome  notions  of  things  human,  they 
are  called  humanities.  No  service  could  be  greater. 
The  conscious  weaving  of  the  well-selected  past  into 
our  lives  is  not  a  part,  it  is  the  whole,  of  education. 
The  love  of  the  past,  it  has  been  well  said,  is  the 
true  fatherland. 

But  though  that  and  nothing  else  is  our  ideal  of 
education,  there  are  grave  doubts  about  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  means  which  these  defenders  of  the 
classics  would  employ  to  give  them  the  desired 
influence  over  the  young.  They  all  insist  that  the 
Greek  and  Latin  authors  must  be  read  in  the  original, 
though  Viscount  Bryce  qualifies  that  statement  by 
declaring  that  if  that  is  not  done  the  "style  and  the 
more  subtle  refinements  of  expression  will  be  lost, 
but  the  facts  and  a  great  part  of  the  thoughts  will 
remain.  The  facts  and  thoughts  are  well  worth 


174  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

having."  To  us  they  seem  to  be  the  element  of 
greatest  worth.  If  anything  must  be  lost  in  our 
study,  we  think  it  should  not  be  the  thoughts  which 
the  writings  of  the  master  minds  can  arouse  within 
us.  But  the  school  study  of  the  classics  fails  lamen- 
tably to  arouse  them.  In  the  last  fifteen  years  it  has 
been  our  privilege  to  give  courses  in  the  history  of 
education  in  three  of  the  large  universities  and  one 
of  the  leading  woman's  colleges  of  our  country.  In 
that  way  we  have  had  opportunity  to  test  the  famil- 
iarity of  hundreds  of  college  students  of  Latin  and 
Greek  with  the  thoughts  and  ideals  of  the  men  of  the 
great  past  whose  writings  they  had  studied  in  the 
original.  These  students  were  many  of  them  the  best 
young  men  and  women  of  their  college  and  had  been 
carefully  prepared  for  its  classes  in  the  leading  high 
schools  and  private  schools  of  the  land.  Our  con- 
ception of  the  history  of  education  was  not  that  of 
the  ordinary  textbook.  We  claimed  for  the  period 
of  beginnings  much  greater  attention  than  for  the 
eras  of  subsequent  development.  The  declaration  of 
Sir  Henry  Sunnier  Maine  that  "aside  from  the  blind 
forces  of  nature,  nothing  moves  in  this  world  that 
was  not  Greek  hi  its  origin  "  seemed  to  us  to  be  nearly 
literally  true.  One  half  of  our  year  we  spent  in  an 
intensive  study  of  the  life  and  thought  of  the  an- 
cients. That  all  too  brief  semester  was  ever  a  season 
of  delight.  We  examined  the  hideous  war  machine 
called  Sparta ;  we  traced  the  beginnings  of  democracy 
at  Athens ;  we  studied  the  Periclean  Age  and  heard 
the  Sophists  speak  to  their  admiring  crowds  of 
followers ;  we  followed  Socrates  about  the  streets  of 


his  city  and  listened  to  his  speech  in  defense  of  his 
lif e ;  and  then  we  read  and  discussed  that  dialogue  of 
Plato  which  Rousseau  called  "the  greatest  book  on 
education  ever  written."  The  limits  of  our  time 
forbade  us  to  think  of  taking  it  up  in  Greek.  We 
studied  it  in  translation;  we  traced  the  spread  of 
Greek  education  through  the  world,  and  when  we 
came  to  Rome,  we  did  our  best  to  understand  her 
institutions  and  her  aims.  Throughout  this  course 
we  used  the  sources  and  attempted  to  reorganize  and 
integrate  what  we  had  learned  of  Greek  and  Latin 
life  in  other  classes.  We  had  not  learned  much. 
Most  of  us  had  heard  of  Socrates  and  looked  upon  him 
as  a  martyr,  but  none  of  us  knew  what  his  mission  in 
life  had  been  or  in  what  way  he  had  made  all  men 
beholden  to  him.  Only  four  of  that  long  procession 
of  students  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Plato, 
though  many  had  read  one  or  more  of  his  dialogues 
in  Greek.  Of  Aristotle,  they  knew  even  less,  and  to 
my  annually  repeated  question :  What  was  Virgil's 
purpose  in  composing  the  ^Eneid  ?  I  never  but  once 
got  the  correct  reply. 

Senator  Lodge  criticizes  Emerson  for  urging  the 
reading  of  the  classics  in  translation.  Emerson's 
well  annotated  books  in  his  library  at  Concord 
show  that  that  was  the  method  which  he  followed. 
No  other  American  has  yet  read  them  to  such  advan- 
tage. How  one  should  read  depends  upon  what  one 
wants.  If  the  reading  is  for  linguistic  reasons  or  to 
discipline  the  faculties  of  one's  mind,  he  must  keep  to 
the  original.  But,  if  his  purpose  is  not  to  treat  his 
author  as  a  specimen  of  Latin  or  Greek  composition, 


176  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

or  an  exercise  book  in  grammar,  it  is  hardly  likely 
that  the  young  learner  will  make  for  himself  as  good 
and  satisfactory  a  translation  of  Plato  as  Jowett  or 
Davies  and  Vaughn  have  made  for  him.  It  is 
difficult  —  almost  too  difficult  —  for  students  to 
follow  the  course  of  Plato's  thought  in  English ;  when 
they  translate  him  from  the  Greek,  they  forget  there 
is  any  thought  there. 

The  fact  is  that  it  is  mere  play  upon  words  to 
defend  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  secondary 
schools  and  colleges  in  the  United  States  on  the 
score  of  humanism.  Humanism  it  is  not,  and 
humanism  it  rarely  tries  to  be,  save  in  written  or 
spoken  defenses  of  the  study  of  the  classics.  The 
only  assault  which  is  being  made  upon  humanism 
is  that  which  grammarism  is  making.  From  year 
to  year  the  pious  fraud  goes  on  and  none  are  more 
deluded  by  it  than  the  teachers  of  the  classics  them- 
selves, who  seem  to  think  that  any  sort  of  occupation 
with  the  text  of  an  ancient  author  is  sufficient  to 
make  his  worth  known  and  admired  by  the  student. 
This  is  the  familiar  fallacy  of  the  part  and  the  whole. 
It  may  be  true  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  thought 
without  language  —  though  the  experience  of  every 
one  of  us  denies  it — but  it  is  not  true  that  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  language  without  thought.  The 
concept  and  its  name  are  as  surely  two  different 
existences  for  each  of  us  as  Hamlet's  wicked  foster 
father  declared  them  to  be.  Occupation  with  the 
word  has  always  tended  to  prevent  occupation  with 
the  thought  which  lives  behind  it. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  this  bog  of  confusion 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    177 

once  more  to  the  lucid  discussion  of  Viscount  Bryce. 
"Let  us  recognize  that  the  despotism  of  a  purely 
grammatical  study  of  the  ancient  languages  and 
authors  needed  to  be  overthrown.  Let  us  also  dis- 
card some  weak  arguments  which  our  predecessors 
have  used,  such  as  that  no  one  can  write  a  good 
English  style  without  knowing  Latin.  There  are  too 
many  cases  to  the  contrary.  Nothing  is  gained  by 
trying  to  defend  an  untenable  position.  What  we 
are  really  thinking  of  when  we  talk  of  the  ancient 
classics  is  something  far  above  grammar  and  the 
study  of  words,  far  above  even  inquiries  so  illumina- 
tive as  those  which  belong  to  Comparative  Philology. 
It  is  the  ancient  world  as  a  whole ;  not  the  languages 
merely,  but  the  writings;  not  their  texts  and  style 
merely,  but  all  that  the  books  contain  or  suggest." 
What  the  books  contain  and  suggest  is  indeed  price- 
less, but  do  the  students  get  to  it  who  pass  through 
the  long  grammatical  discipline  of  the  high  school 
and  the  college  ?  As  I  understand  it,  it  is  not  against 
the  classics  but  against  the  patent  misuse  of  the 
classics  that  the  modernist  protests,  and  his  protest 
is  not  silenced  by  reminding  him  that  he  has  no 
right  to  expect  the  classics  to  be  well  taught  until 
he  can  show  that  other  subjects  are  well  taught  also. 
That  may  or  may  not  be  true.  The  modernist 
believes  that  they  are  badly  taught  for  the  reason 
that  the  philosophy  which  is  behind  that  teaching 
is  a  jumble.  Professor  Shorey  and  Senator  Lodge 
have  furnished  him  the  proof  that  that  is  so.  Until 
the  champions  of  these  studies  disentangle  the  reasons 
for  studying  them  with  a  bit  more  skill,  confusion  is 


178  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

bound  to  attend  the  teaching  of  them.  Even  so 
clear-cut  a  thinker  as  President  Hadley  follows  up 
his  story  of  the  boy  who  was  asked  about  Julius 
Caesar  and  replied:  "He  was  a  great  general  who 
wrote  a  textbook  for  beginners  in  Latin,"  and  his 
comment:  "This  is  no  unfair  caricature  of  the 
mental  attitude  in  which  tolerably  good  students 
approached  the  great  names  of  classical  antiquity'* 
with  the  statement:  "The  schoolmaster  who  can 
show  us  how  to  make  French  a  means  of  developing 
intellectual  power  and  persistence,  as  Latin  or  Greek 
has  been  the  means  of  developing  them,  will  confer 
a  boon  upon  the  school  and  college  world."  Power 
and  persistence  are  the  last  words  in  his,  as  in 
Professor  Shorey's  and  Senator  Lodge's  defense  of 
them.  But  power  and  persistence  are  not  synony- 
mous with  an  appreciation  of  human  force,  human 
freedom  and  human  activity  as  they  existed  in 
antiquity.  They  are  not  even  compatible  with  it. 
How  Petrarch,  Erasmus  and  Melancthon  would 
have  groaned  at  such  a  perversion  of  the  true  aim  of 
their  beloved  studies !  They  had  a  clearer  vision. 
They  knew  that  the  preliminary  philological  dis- 
cipline must  never  be  allowed  to  become  the  main 
matter.  "A  Latin  grammar  of  thirty  pages,"  said 
Matthew  Arnold,  "would  amply  suffice  for  the  uses 
of  philology." 

Professor  Shorey  complains  that  the  innovators 
are  robbing  Greek  and  Latin  of  their  saving  power; 
that  educational  reformers  are  not  new,  wishes  for  a 
comparative  psychology  of  impatient  educational 
revolutionaries,  and  dismisses  the  whole  brood  of 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS     179 

them  with  a  sneer.  They  are  not  new.  This 
world  has  been  blessed  and  renewed  by  a  long  line 
of  them  from  Socrates  and  Plato  down.  They  too 
had  the  courage  of  their  "insensibilities."  The 
type  has  been  recurrent,  for  such  men  were  needed. 
The  story  of  education,  like  that  of  every  other  race- 
old  endeavor,  is  an  account  of  tragic  mistakes,  per- 
verse errors,  arrogant  and  man-consuming  tyranny 
and  Moloch-like  dogmatism  demanding  that  the 
children  be  fed  for  the  good  of  society,  now  to  one, 
now  to  another,  idol.  No,  modernism  is  no  new 
note  in  education,  just  as  it  is  no  new  note  in  theology 
or  politics  or  science  or  philosophy.  It  is  an  ever- 
recurring  operation  which  each  generation  must  per- 
form upon  its  inheritance  in  order  to  live  well,  a 
service  consecrated  by  such  names  as  Plato,  Quin- 
tilian,  Abelard,  Roger  Bacon,  Petrarch,  Melanc- 
thon  and  John  Milton,  each  of  whom  turned  upon 
the  futility  of  much  which  his  contemporaries  were 
attempting  and  felt  himself  commissioned  to  point 
out  a  better  way.  The  conviction  in  the  mind  of 
each  of  them  was  none  other  than  that  of  the  greatest 
educational  innovator  of  them  all  when  he  asserted 
that  the  young  must  have  the  best,  whatever  it  is, 
if  they  are  to  have  the  chief  thing  needful. 

"The  best!"  That  surely  is  worth  hunting  for. 
It  seems  to  me  a  little  incongruous  to  support  the 
claims  of  the  humanities  by  a  general  vilification  of 
the  contemporary  literature  of  education,  in  which 
an  honest,  though  at  times  misguided,  effort  is  made 
to  hunt  for  the  best.  Tastes  in  authorities  differ, 
Professor  Shorey  has  told  us.  So  do  tastes  in 


180  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

methods  of  conducting  battles  and  arguments.  The 
berserker  method  has  of  late  become  a  rather  in- 
adequate device  for  spreading  culture.  As  long  as 
those  who  study  education  learn  more  about  it 
than  those  who  do  not,  it  will  disturb  them  little  to 
have  their  knowledge  called  psuedo-science  by  a  critic 
whose  frantic  effort  for  twenty  years  to  strangle 
the  infant  of  their  tending  has  resulted  only  in 
getting  for  it  larger  and  ever  larger  opportunities 
to  grow. 

A  humanist  who  "sticks  to  his  last"  does  not  need 
to  be  warned  of  the  vfipk  that  goes  before  de- 
struction. The  case  of  Darwin  and  the  bishops 
and  of  the  classics  against  science  are  rather  too 
recent  not  to  carry  a  warning.  One  who  thinks 
that  the  last  word  about  the  processes  of  memory, 
association,  judgment,  and  the  relation  of  language 
to  thought,  was  uttered  by  Mill,  Taine,  Schopen- 
hauer, Emerson,  Quintilian,  Cicero  or  Plato,  or  that 
they  themselves  did  not  advise  search  without  ceas- 
ing about  these  very  matters,  has  only  to  read  them 
more  carefully. 

Stripped  of  rhetorical  verbiage,  this  defense  of 
humanism  is  not  at  all  concerned  with  the  human 
spirit,  but  is  mere  intellectualism  prescribing  an  arid 
regimentation  of  words.  "Words  are  our  substance 
here,"  wrote  Gregory  Nazianzen,  "they  are  our 
supreme  interest,  we  live  for  them,  and  if  we  are  asked 
to  give  them  up,  we  cannot  live  at  all."1  That  view 
was  then,  and  is  no  less  now,  a  wicked  perversion  of 
the  teaching  of  Plato :  "And,  if  you  continue  to  be 

1 "  Against  Julian, "  100  et  seq. 


FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  CLASSICS    181 

not  too  particular  about  names,  you  will  be  all  the 
richer  in  wisdom  when  you  are  an  old  man."  * 

"You  will  agree,"  writes  Viscount  Bryce,  "that 
the  time  has  come  when  every  one  should  approach 
the  subject,  not  as  the  advocate  of  a  cause,  but  in  an 
impartial  spirit."  The  question  is  not  how  can  the 
grammatical  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  be  preserved 
as  indispensable  parts  of  education.  It  cannot  be 
preserved;  it  is  already  hastening  to  its  grave. 
The  question  is :  How  can  the  study  of  the  ancient 
world  be  brought  to  life  as  an  essential  part  of 
education?  The  teachers  of  the  classics  have  de- 
voted themselves  so  exclusively  to  mental  gym- 
nastics through  linguistic  exercises  that  the  wisdom 
literature  of  the  past  has  been  lost  and  almost  for- 
gotten. Humanity  is  not  their  first  interest  and  to 
many  of  them  it  is  not  an  interest  at  all.  Since  they 
have  wrapped  their  talent  in  a  napkin,  it  must  be 
taken  away  from  them  and  committed  to  others  who 
know  how  to  put  it  out  at  interest  and  derive  profit 
from  it.  Who  are  those  more  trustworthy  stewards 
who  know  how  to  use  it?  The  teachers  of  history, 
ethics,  philosophy,  politics,  literature,  science,  mathe- 
matics, and  education.  They  know  that  the  past  is 
priceless  because  it  is  not  dead  but  living.  They 
know  that  it  contributed  the  concepts  with  which 
we  now  work,  but  they  also  know  that  the  student 
who  would  profit  by  the  study  of  the  classics  must 
be  nourished  by  their  concepts,  not  their  words. 

1 "  Statesman,"  261. 


WHAT    IS    HISTORY    AND    WHY    DO   WE 
WANT  IT?1 

I  WANT  first  to  raise  the  question :  Why  do  we 
care  for  history  ?  that  I  may  go  on  in  the  light  of  the 
answer  to  that  question  to  consider  what  parts  or 
aspects  of  history  we  really  care  for.  Never  since 
the  world  began  has  there  been  a  time  so  informing 
as  the  present.  All  the  forces  that  operate  in  the 
life  of  man  have  stepped  out  of  the  mists  of  familiar- 
ity and  redefined  themselves  with  ghastly  distinct- 
ness before  our  eyes.  We  knew  in  a  vague  way  that 
human  existence  depended  upon  the  tilling  of  the 
soil ;  but  now,  when  one-half  the  world  struggles 
against  starvation  and  the  other  hah*  faces  it  as  a 
not  remote  contingency,  we  realize  the  condition 
upon  which  soul  and  body  remain  together.  Fuel 
and  clothing,  strangely  enough,  become  more  dis- 
tinct the  farther  they  remove  themselves  from  us. 
Steel  and  iron,  railroads  and  ships,  dollars  and  taxes, 
chemists  and  common  laborers,  all  have  lost  the 
taken-for-grantedness  of  yesterday  and,  as  if  by 
transfiguration,  have  revealed  the  part  which  they 
play  in  the  lives  of  us  all.  What  a  vast  simplification 
is  here!  And  how  inexplicable  seems  the  dullness 
which  kept  us  from  discerning  the  significance  of 
these  things  before.  And  material  things  are  not 
alone  in  taking  on  clarity  of  existence.  Politics, 

1  An  address  to  the  Political  Science  Association  of  Southern  California, 
Feb.  16,  1918. 

182 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  183 

ethics,  law,  philosophy,  religion,  literature,  music, 
science,  mathematics,  and  education  as  well,  have 
cast  aside  their  obscurity  of  purpose  and  stand  before 
us  disclosing  what  they  are  and  what  they  attempt 
to  do.  History,  too,  whose  mission  was  even  more 
obscure,  perhaps,  than  theirs  is  seen  to  be  a  simple 
thing  —  too  simple  to  content  the  craftsmanship  of 
her  votaries  in  the  past  and  too  necessary  a  human 
commodity  to  be  allowed  to  fail  us  in  the  future. 

What  is  it  that  has  made  food  and  fuel  and  clothing 
and  steel  and  money  and  ships  stand  out  so  clearly  ? 
Our  want  of  them.  What  is  it  that  has  made  the 
essential  nature  of  government  —  morality,  legalized 
action,  sane  thinking,  true  religion  and  undefiled, 
the  criticism  of  life  which  literature  is,  the  elevation 
of  the  spirit  which  music  should  be  and  is  not,  the 
service  of  science,  the  usefulness  of  mathematics, 
the  nature  and  helpfulness  of  education,  so  evident 
to  us  all?  Our  need  for  these  things.  We  do  not 
want  them  for  themselves.  We  want  them  for 
what  we  can  do  with  them,  for  the  use  we  can  make 
of  them.  They  get  their  value  wholly  from  our 
need.  Unrelated  to  our  purposes,  they  are  nothing 
to  us.  It  is  not  they  that  have  changed.  It  is  our 
purposes  that  have  magnified  themselves  and  the 
objects  with  which  they  deal.  The  war  has  forced 
us  to  be  acutely  conscious  of  wants  to  which  we  gave 
but  humdrum  attention  as  long  as  they  seemed  to 
get  themselves  supplied  more  or  less  automatically. 

One  of  these  acutely  sensed  wants  is  for  a  knowledge 
of  the  conditions  out  of  which  this  conflict  of  human 
purposes  has  grown.  What  is  its  history  ?  We  must 


184  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

have  that  knowledge,  for  we  must  rectify  this  dis- 
astrous outcome  in  human  relations  and  prevent  it 
ever  recurring  again.  That  knowledge,  therefore, 
is  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  us  all.  We  do  not 
want  it  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  not  knowing  unmixed 
with  volition.  It  is  knowing  demanded  by  volition. 
Our  historians  who  spent  their  lives  in  reckoning 
the  tendencies  of  the  past  gave  us  no  sufficient 
account  of  the  course  which  we  were  pursuing. 
They  did  not  warn  us  of  danger.  They  did  not  fore- 
tell the  future  which  the  past  was  creating.  Theirs 
is  not  an  exact  science.  Neither  is  meteorology,  yet 
the  meteorologist  can  discern  a  storm  when  it  is 
gathering  and  can  forecast  its  probable  course  and 
its  consequences.  The  historians  were  not  able  to 
do  that.  Though  it  seems  there  were  plenty  of 
intimations  of  its  coming,  they  passed  unheeded. 
Why  ?  Most  likely  we  shall  never  know  the  answer. 
If  the  business  of  intelligence  is  to  foresee  conditions, 
to  anticipate  what  steps  must  be  taken  to  control 
them,  Germany's  ability  to  launch  a  colossal  war 
which  she  had  been  preparing  for  forty  years,  upon  a 
world  so  innocent  of  what  was  impending,  must 
remain  the  crowning  proof  of  the  world's  unintelli- 
gence  until  the  end  of  time.  How  it  could  have  been 
done  as  it  was  done  passes  understanding.  "WTiy 
did  not  some  of  you  professors  who  read  German 
books  and  are  supposed  to  be  intelligent  enough  to 
understand  what  they  contain  tell  us  what  they  were 
planning  and  writing  about  ?  "  asked  a  friend  of  mine. 
I  could  reply  only  that  their  perfervid  rhapsodies 
over  the  war  which  they  said  was  coming  seemed  to 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  185 

us  to  be  merely  a  new  and  strange  kind  of  literary 
outlandishness  in  which  they  were  trying  to  outdo 
each  other.  Even  so  close  a  student  of  things 
German  and  so  acute  a  thinker  as  Viscount  Haldane, 
in  his  address  before  the  American  Bar  Association 
at  Montreal  on  September  1st,  1913,  took  occasion 
to  say  that  "the  barbarism  which  once  looked  to 
conquest  and  the  waging  of  successful  war  as  the 
main  object  of  statesmanship,  seems  as  though  it 
were  passing  away." 

Can  history  not  predict?  Is  its  function  merely 
to  describe  what  has  happened  ?  Can  it  do  nothing 
to  help  us  to  take  note  of,  and  get  ready  for,  what  is 
coming?  There  is  a  saying  to  the  effect  that  his- 
tory never  repeats  itself.  If  that  is  so,  history  can 
be  of  but  slight  account  to  us.  But,  is  it  so?  If 
every  moment  of  our  lives  was  wholly  unlike  every 
moment  that  went  before  it  and  wholly  unlike  every 
moment  that  came  after  it,  we  should  never  know 
that  we  had  a  past.  There  would  be  no  anticipation 
of  the  future.  Indeed,  there  would  be  no  future  and 
no  such  thing  as  time,  or  memory,  or  science,  or 
learning,  at  all.  Every  moment  is  unlike  every  other 
moment  in  some  respects,  but  it  is  also  like  them. 
We  remain  somewhat  the  same  through  them  all, 
our  needs  remain  somewhat  the  same  and  the 
world  of  folks  and  of  things  in  which  we  supply  our 
needs  remains  somewhat  the  same.  It  is  this  one- 
ness of  our  lives,  this  relative  constancy  of  our  en- 
vironment that  makes  experience  possible,  that 
makes  learning  helpful,  and  that  makes  anticipation 
a  means  of  safety.  I  and  my  fellows  are  different. 


186  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

We  do  not  have  the  same  feelings  and  the  same 
thoughts;  we  cannot  even  be  sure  that  we  have 
similar  feelings  and  thoughts ;  we  cannot  match 
them  or  compare  them,  but  we  do  act  in  similar  ways, 
and  similarity  of  actions  leads  us  to  conclude  that  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  which  are  behind  our  acts 
are  similar  also.  If  each  generation  were  different 
from  every  other  generation  —  wholly  and  com- 
pletely different  —  then,  though  the  members  of 
every  single  generation  were  alike  and  the  memory 
of  what  its  members  had  done  since  coming  upon  the 
earth  would  be  of  value  to  it,  that  memory  of  what 
any  single  generation  had  done  would  be  of  no  value 
to  any  member  of  another  generation  than  his  own. 
The  race  would  be  blotted  out  and  renewed,  genera- 
tion by  generation,  but,  according  to  our  assumption, 
there  would  be  no  continuity  of  character  between  one 
generation  and  the  next.  In  such  a  world,  history,  I 
think,  would  have  no  advantage.  There  would,  to  be 
sure,  be  the  story  of  what  each  generation  had  done  in 
its  earlier  days  which  its  members  would  continue  to 
tell  each  other  until  they  passed  from  the  scene; 
but  just  as  soon  as  they  had  passed  away  beings 
completely  different,  according  to  our  hypothesis, 
come  on  the  stage.  Their  physical  wants  are  differ- 
ent, their  means  of  getting  a  livelihood  are  different, 
their  customs  and  ways  are  different,  their  hopes  and 
fears,  their  aspirations  and  desires  are  different. 
Can  what  happened  to  the  animals  which  preceded 
them  be  of  any  concern  to  them  ?  They  started  no 
undertakings  which  the  newcomers  must  carry  on, 
they  left  no  unfinished  business  which  the  new- 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  187 

comers  must  push  toward  completion,  their  experi- 
ences and  their  struggles  have  no  guidance  value 
for  their  successors.  Something,  many  things, 
happened  to  them.  Would  the  newcomers  trouble 
themselves  to  find  out  what  they  were?  Would 
they  take  pains  to  know  a  past  which  was  merely 
past?  I  think  not.  It  is  continuity  of  purpose 
which  makes  history  vital.  The  description  of 
events  is  only  a  means  to  serve  it. 

A  distinguished  historian  in  an  eastern  university 
tells  me  that  another  distinguished  historian  once 
said  in  his  hearing,  "My  interest  is  in  the  future." 
"It  seems  a  strange  thing,"  my  informant  said, 
"for  a  historian  to  say.  I  should  have  thought,"  he 
said,  "that,  being  a  historian,  he  would  have  rec- 
ognized the  fact  that  history  deals  wholly  with  the 
past  and  that  the  historian  must  be  concerned  with  it 
alone."  One  of  the  things  that  this  war  is  teaching 
is  that  history  is  not  primarily  concerned  with  the 
past.  It  studies  the  past,  but  always  for  the  purpose 
of  enlightening  us  concerning  the  present  and  to  make 
us  prepare  for  the  future.  No  matter  how  much  the 
historian  asserts  his  impartiality  and  his  scientific 
neutrality,  the  fact  remains  that  he  is,  and  must  be,  a 
selector.  If  he  says  that  his  concern  is  for  the  facts 
of  the  past,  for  the  facts  and  all  the  facts  and  nothing 
but  the  facts,  he  must  still  choose  them.  There  are 
too  many  of  them  to  permit  him  to  attend  to  them 
all.  Take  the  history  of  the  civil  war.  Let  our 
historian  set  out  to  describe  the  facts  of  that  war. 
How  many  of  them  are  there  ?  Something  happened 
to  every  soldier  who  took  part  in  that  war,  from  the 


188  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

moment  of  his  enlistment  to  the  moment  of  his 
mustering  out.  Every  moment  of  that  period 
something  happened  to  him  and  likewise  something 
happened  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  connected 
with  him  and  to  many,  perhaps  even  to  most  of  the 
men,  women  and  children  in  the  world,  because  of 
that  war.  Now,  let  our  scientific  historian  who 
undertakes  to  describe  the  past  get  to  work.  The 
task  is  impossible  and  as  futile  as  it  is  impossible. 
Even  the  most  scientific  of  historians  does  not  attempt 
anything  so  foolish.  He  selects  from  the  infinite 
mass  of  happenings  a  few,  a  very  few,  for  our  con- 
templation. Why  does  he  select  the  ones  which  he 
does  select?  Why,  for  example,  does  he  expect 
every  school  child  to  follow  him  as  he  attempts  to 
untangle  the  campaigns  of  the  Civil  War?  The 
only  answer  which  I  know  to  that  question  is  because 
it  is  traditional  for  him  to  do  so.  Is  there  any  real 
justification  for  that  tradition?  I  do  not  know  of 
any.  A  defender  of  that  practice  will  say :  "  But 
history  must  be  real  and  those  campaigns  are  real, 
therefore  they  must  appear  in  the  textbooks."  But 
what  about  the  infinity  of  real  happenings  which 
do  not  appear  there?  History  simply  cannot  be 
photographic.  The  historian  must  paint  a  portrait, 
he  must  portray  the  past  from  his  point  of  view, 
which  is  far  more  likely  to  be  different  from  that  of 
other  historians  who  have  described  the  same  period 
than  to  be  like  them.  Such  a  thing  as  the  definitive 
history  of  a  state  or  nation,  even  of  a  dead  state  or 
nation,  does  not  exist.  Every  generation  attempts 
to  write  its  own  version  of  the  history  of  Greece  and 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  189 

Rome.  Why  is  that  ?  The  answer  seems  to  be  that 
the  writing  of  history  is  a  form  of  creating.  Each 
new  generation  has  problems  of  its  own,  problems 
which  have  never  before  come  so  acutely  to  conscious- 
ness as  they  do  in  its  time.  It  interrogates  the  past 
from  the  viewpoint  of  its  own  problems.  It  seeks 
in  the  past  some  light  upon  their  answer.  From  this 
standpoint,  the  writing  of  history  is  far  more  like 
the  process  of  hunting  in  a  letter  file  for  a  certain 
letter  which  you  have  reason  to  believe  is  there  than 
attempting  to  make  a  summary  of  all  the  letters 
which  one  finds  in  the  files. 

Again,  under  what  conditions  can  a  people  have 
a  history?  Can  Mexico  with  its  aimless  seethings 
of  brigandage  and  faction  fighting  have  a  history? 
Can  there  be  a  history  of  events  which  are  merely 
sporadic  and  random,  which  can  not  be  strung  on  any 
thread  of  purpose?  Chronicles  of  what  has  hap- 
pened there  may  be,  but  no  history  until  some- 
thing is  foreseen,  imagined,  desired,  planned,  pro- 
posed and  struggled  for.  All  history  is,  and  must  be, 
a  history  of  undertakings ;  a  history  of  happenings  is 
impossible.  A  world  made  up  of  insane  men  would 
be  rich  in  happenings  but  utterly  without  history. 
And,  whenever  the  actions  of  men  nominally  sane 
approach  theirs  in  incoherence,  history  ceases  in  just 
that  degree  to  care  for  that  subject  matter. 

Now,  if  we  are  at  all  right  in  the  view  that  it  is  the 
aimfulness  of  human  striving  that  gives  it  historical 
value,  may  we  not  at  once  pass  to  the  answer  to  the 
second  question  and  say  that  it  is  clear  that  the  parts 
or  aspects  of  history  which  we  really  care  for  are  those 


190  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

which  affect  our  own  undertakings  and  shed  light 
upon  the  purposes  to  which  we  have  committed 
ourselves.  It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  high 
school  classes  spending  as  much  energy  upon  the 
history  of  Japan  or  China  as  they  now  spend  upon 
that  of  Greece  or  Rome,  the  Middle  Ages  or  modern 
times  in  Europe.  It  would  be  difficult;  but  condi- 
tions might,  and  even  may,  arise  which  would  send 
us  all  to  a  study  of  that  very  history  of  China 
or  Japan  which  we  now  scorn  or  treat  as  nearly 
meaningless  to  us.  The  history  of  Germany  existed 
in  English  before  the  war  began,  but  it  was  treated 
as  a  rather  distant  and  remote  body  of  records  by 
most  of  us.  Since  the  war  began,  every  part  of  it, 
from  Tacitus  down,  has  become  alive  with  meaning. 
My  contention,  supported  by  these  illustrations,  is 
that  our  concern  with  history  is  because  of  its  prag- 
matic value.  That  fact  will  be  recognized  in  the 
future  as  it  has  not  been  recognized  in  the  past,  and 
the  study  of  history,  both  in  order  to  set  it  down,  and 
to  comprehend  it,  will  take  on  a  far  more  consciously 
purposive  character  than  it  has  had  in  the  past. 
The  historian  will  try  to  make  us  acquainted  with 
the  streams  of  tendency  which  are  pouring  themselves 
through  the  ages  in  the  purposive  undertakings  of 
the  different  nations  and  the  characteristic  groups 
of  peoples  in  them,  and  we  on  our  part  will  study 
the  dynamics,  rather  than  the  statics,  of  the  past. 
This  will  make  the  task  of  the  historian  harder,  far 
harder,  than  it  has  been  before;  harder,  but  more 
meaningful,  for  he  must  analyze  away  the  husk  of 
facts  and  supply  us  with  the  kernel  of  significance. 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  191 

To  do  that,  he  must  start  with  the  very  thing  which 
he  has  systematically  derided  in  the  past ;  namely,  a 
philosophy  of  history,  and  by  its  aid  he  must  select 
the  facts  which  have  worth  from  those  which  are 
so  dead  and  foreign  to  living  human  interest  as  in  no 
wise  to  concern  it.  History  will  then  be  a  kind  of 
chart  by  which  human  undertakings  may  get  their 
bearings.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  student  this 
change  will  result  in  a  great  simplification.  His 
study  of  history  will  lead  to  self-orientation,  rather 
than  the  purposeless  garnering  of  masses  of  facts, 
undigested  and  indigestible,  which  he  is  fated  to 
carry  about  with  him  as  a  heavy  load  which  destroys 
his  energy  and  results  only  in  stupefaction.  I  can 
put  the  matter  somewhat  concretely  in  an  illustration. 
There  was  a  battle  once  —  a  little  battle  —  at  a 
place  called  Concord.  Many  things  happened  there. 
Every  man  engaged  wore  clothes  of  a  certain  kind, 
carried  weapons  of  a  certain  sort,  was  commanded 
by  certain  officers,  sang  or  heard  certain  songs,  fought 
after  a  certain  fashion,  gave  or  received  wounds. 
The  details  of  that  small  battle  are  both  numerous 
and  stirring.  But  what  is  it  that  we  want  to  know 
about  that  fight  ?  What  is  the  immortal  part  of  it  ? 
The  purpose  which  expressed  itself  and  accumulated 
force  there.  If  the  spirit  of  '76  were  not  alive  to-day, 
Concord  would  leave  us  as  unmoved  as  King  Creon's 
command  that  the  brother  of  Antigone  go  unburied. 
When  it  makes  so  little  difference  whether  a  body  is 
buried  or  not,  you  cannot  make  a  tragedy  out  of 
the  withholding  of  burial  rites.  Correspondingly,  if 
the  time  shall  ever  come  when  it  makes  no  difference 


192  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

to  folks  whether  they  are  slaves  or  free,  the  battle 
of  Concord  will  drop  out  of  the  histories.  Marathon 
and  Salamis  will  follow  it,  but  rather  afar  off,  for 
their  dramatic  setting  gives  them  an  added  claim 
to  the  attention  of  men.  Whenever  men  cease  to 
carry  that  line  of  goods,  they  will  cease  to  take 
thought  of  what  happened  at  those  places.  For- 
getting is  the  great  fact  and  at  the  same  time  the 
great  necessity.  We  must  do  all  in  our  power  to 
assist  it.  How  handicapped  a  world  would  be  which 
constantly  reminded  its  members  of  their  ancestral 
past  after  the  fashion  of  one  of  those  tiresome  and 
futile  complete  redintegrators  of  Jane  Austen's  novels ! 
The  one  way  to  civilize  a  people  is  to  put  them  into 
conditions  in  which  they  will  be  constrained  to  forget 
their  savagery  and  their  barbarism.  It  must  become 
a  thing  of  loathing  to  them.  Christianity  was, 
perhaps,  entirely  justified  in  minimizing  the  impor- 
tance of  the  study  of  the  ancient  writings  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  for  if  they  had  not  been  forgotten,  the 
unlovely  life  of  which  they  were  a  part  would  have 
remained  an  object  of  fond  recollection,  and  those 
who  recollected  it  would  have  reenacted  it  and  it 
would  thus  have  lived  on  in  the  world  in  spite  of  its 
hideousness  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  mankind 
had  found  a  better  way.  Just  so  Germany  has  not 
profited  by  filling  its  mind  with  the  triumphs  of  the 
Huns  or  the  thought  of  the  wide  extent  of  the 
territory  over  which  Charlemagne  ruled.  The  past 
may  be  as  poisonous  when  remembered  as  it  was  when 
it  existed.  That,  I  think,  must  have  been  the  reason 
for  Lord  Acton's  charge:  "I  exhort  you  never  to 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  193 

debase  the  moral  currency  or  to  lower  the  standard 
of  rectitude,  but  to  try  others  by  the  final  maxim 
that  governs  your  own  lives  and  to  suffer  no  man 
and  no  cause  to  escape  the  undying  penalty  which 
history  has  the  power  to  inflict  on  wrong."1  J.  R. 
Green  has  it  that  without  the  moral  and  spiritual 
life  "history  is  nothing  but  an  old  almanac."2  In 
these  days  of  censoring  we  can  see,  I  think,  that  the 
writing  of  history  must  be  a  rather  vigorous  censoring 
of  the  past.  Thus  does  the  issue  stand  between  the 
realistic  and  idealistic  schools  of  historians ;  but  the 
battle  is  going  against  the  realists  nowadays,  for  the 
impossibility  as  well  as  the  unprofitableness  of  their 
program  is  painfully  evident.  On  the  other  hand, 
Germany  is  a  witness  that  history  made  to  order  will 
not  do. 

What  kind  of  history,  then,  do  we  want?  It 
must  of  course  be  true,  but  it  may  be  true  and  have 
no  bearing  upon  present  human  undertakings;  in 
that  case  it  will  be  barren.  To  escape  that,  it  must 
confine  itself  to  the  unfinished  business  of  the  world 
and  leave  the  dead  and  inert  past  to  bury  its  dead. 
What  I  mean  is  that  the  history  which  is  worth 
teaching  is  the  history  which  will  tell  the  student  of 
Sparta  and  Athens  and  Rome  and  Carthage,  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  founding  of  our  country,  such  a 
story  and  in  such  a  way  that  he  will  be  constrained 
to  say  "Why,  that  is  just  what  we  are  doing  to-day." 
Until  he  can  see  that  these  are  the  earlier  chapters  of 
the  same  story  which  we  of  to-day  are  writing  his 

1  "A  Lecture  on  The  Study  of  History,"  p.  63. 
1 "  Historical  Studies,"  p.  249. 
o 


194  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

study  will  not  be  of  much  profit  to  him.  But  they 
are  the  earlier  chapters.  The  war  has  reestablished 
that  fact  in  the  minds  of  us  all.  They  are  the 
earlier  chapters,  and  in  the  days  to  come  we  shall  be 
interested  rather  more  in  the  continuity  of  human 
striving,  in  the  evolution  of  nations  and  institutions, 
in  what  might  be  called  the  trial  balance  conception 
of  history,  than  we  shall  be  in  the  daybook  method  of 
studying  it. 

I  think  we  have  allowed  ourselves  to  be  much 
deceived  by  words.  A  large  part  of  our  study  has 
been  an  effort  to  follow  the  careers  of  governments, 
nations,  causes,  societies,  etc.,  mystical  entities,  all 
of  them,  and  only  folks  voluntarily  or  involuntarily 
yoked  together  in  servitude  to  this,  that,  or  the  other 
notion,  agent,  or  necessity.  When  we  discover,  as 
we  are  now  discovering,  that  Europe  is  a  name  for 
folks,  Germany  is  a  name  for  folks,  France  is  a  name 
for  folks,  and  Greece,  classical  as  well  as  present  day, 
a  name  for  folks,  we  shall  be  in  a  fair  way  to  separate 
what  we  need  to  know  about  them  from  what  is  too 
trifling  and  inconsequential  for  us  to  bother  about. 

I  have  for  a  long  time  gotten  much  help,  both  in 
my  own  thinking  and  that  of  my  students,  by  asking 
the  question:  "Where  is  the  United  States?" 
The  first  reply  is  apt  to  be :  "It  is  between  Canada 
and  Mexico  and  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans." 
No,  that  is  not  the  United  States.  It  is  the  territory, 
the  land,  of  the  United  States.  That  was  all  here  when 
Columbus  came,  but  there  was  no  United  States  here. 
The  second  answer  is  apt  to  be  :  "It  is  at  Washington, 
where  the  President,  the  Congress,  and  the  Supreme 


WHAT  IS  HISTORY?  195 

Court  are."  No,  that  is  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  Where  and  what  is  this  thing  that  we  call  the 
United  States?  The  answer  is  clear.  It  is  just  a 
name  for  folks  who  have  united  themselves  together, 
to  work  together,  and  live  together  in  certain  relations 
under  certain  rules.  The  United  States  is  only 
another  name  for  this  desire,  this  intention,  this 
determination.  If  any  one  could  separate  us  from 
that  determination,  the  United  States  would  cease 
to  be.  It  is  a  choice,  a  purpose,  a  plan,  a  resolution 
of  our  minds,  hearts  and  wills.  The  United  States 
is  only  in  the  consciousness  of  its  people.  If  they 
should  cease  to  will  it,  it  would  cease  to  be.  It  is 
constantly  renewed  by  every  resolution  of  its  citizens 
and  by  taking  in  new  citizens  who  profess  this  con- 
viction and  join  its  company.  Now,  why  do  we 
teach  them  its  history  ?  Why  do  we  not  say  to  them  : 
the  United  States  is  what  you  see  here  now,  you  have 
no  need  to  know  anything  more  about  it.  If  one 
were  suddenly  told  that  he  had  been  elected  a  director 
of  a  corporation  with  which  he  was  completely 
unacquainted,  what  would  his  first  question  be? 
As  soon  as  he  had  recovered  from  his  first  surprise,  I 
think  he  would  ask:  "What  is  the  purpose  of  that 
undertaking?"  "In  what  business  is  that  cor- 
poration engaged  ?  "  And  his  second  question  would 
be :  "  What  has  it  done  up  to  date  ?  WTaat  have  its 
difficulties  and  what  have  its  successes  been?  I 
want  to  know  what  I  am  undertaking,  for  the  char- 
acter of  my  response  will  depend  upon  that." 
Whether  we  will  it  or  no,  each  of  us  is  a  director  of 
the  vast  corporation  which  we  call  the  United  States. 


196  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

It  is  for  that  reason  that  we  must  know  the  character 
of  the  business  in  which  it  is  engaged  and  the 
successes  and  failures  it  has  met  in  carrying  on  that 
business.  We  do  not  want  to  know  all  that  has 
happened  to  it,  but  that  which  has  directive  value 
we  must  know.  For  that  reason  I  regard  history  as 
an  instrumental  study  whose  parts  must  be  selected 
sparingly  with  an  eye  single  to  their  utility.  We 
carry  on  the  unfinished  business  which  our  fathers 
began.  History  tells  us  what  that  business  is,  how 
it  began,  what  it  is  for,  and  what  its  difficulties  and 
rewards  are. 

If  the  United  States  were  the  United  States  of  the 
world,  this  account  would  be  sufficient  to  tell  the 
whole  story.  We  see  now  that  it  is  not.  We  are 
members  of  a  greater  company,  partners  together  in  a 
vaster  enterprise.  We  must  know  what  the  world 
undertaking  is,  and  how  that  undertaking  fares  now 
and  has  fared  heretofore.  Folks  trying  to  live 
together ;  what  are  their  plans,  their  attempts,  their 
successes,  and  their  defeats?  The  story  of  that 
purposive  endeavor,  and  not  the  record  of  events  or 
happenings,  is  what  history  is. 


RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION   AND   THE   WAR1 

FIRST  let  me  attempt  to  answer  the  question  why 
it  is  we  want  religious  education.  These  are  the 
days  of  fundamental  things ;  we  have  reached  rock 
bottom  in  human  interests;  we  stand  before  the 
naked  realities  and  reckon  with  them  in  all  their 
immediateness.  The  covering  of  convention, 
custom,  tradition,  politeness,  whim,  fancy  and 
habit  has  been  stripped  away ;  life  is  no  longer  any- 
where a  pleasant  promenade  along  a  flowery,  secure, 
and  well-protected  way.  The  human  race  fights 
against  impending  slavery,  and  death  against  a 
maniacal  king  and  a  maniacal  people  whose  mania 
is  no  sudden  frenzy,  but  of  that  sinister  kind  which 
prepares  by  plotting  and  planning  and  accumulating 
of  weapons  for  long  years  the  grewsome  murder 
which  it  would  commit. 

In  the  presence  of  this  horror  we  have  no  thought 
for  the  differences  which  divided  us  in  earlier  days. 
They  are  too  trifling  for  consideration  now.  We  are 
not  greatly  concerned  that  young  people  shall  be 
taught  the  essential  doctrines  of  Methodism  rather 
than  the  creed  of  Congregationalism,  or  whether  they 
are  being  brought  up  to  take  due  note  of  that  which 
distinguishes  Baptists  from  Disciples  or  Disciples 
from  Presbyterians. 

1  An  address  before  the  Los  Angeles  Community  Training  College  of 
Religious  Education,  November,  1917. 

197 


198  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

A  world  aflame  has  no  heart  to  devise  the  triumph  of 
the  Greek  church  through  undoing  the  Roman  church, 
and  no  stomach  for  plans  which  further  the  Roman 
church  at  the  expense  of  the  Greek  communion; 
neither  Protestantism  nor  Catholicism  has  time  or 
thought  to  make  proselytes  now.  When  the  enemy 
of  the  human  race  has  been  put  down  we  may  renew 
the  doctrinal  and  denominational  diversions  of  an 
earlier  day.  My  own  conviction  is  that  we  will  not 
renew  them.  We  have  been  taught  a  wholesome 
lesson ;  we  have  learned  to  distinguish  the  things  of 
great  moment  from  the  things  of  little  moment,  and 
henceforth  as  long  as  your  generation  and  mine 
lasts,  we  shall  cleave  fast  to  that  which  concerns  us 
greatly.  I  am  going  to  say,  therefore,  that  our  in- 
terest in  religious  education  is  far  too  serious  to  be 
sectarian. 

I  am  going  farther  than  that.  I  am  going  to  say 
that  our  primary  concern  with  religion  is  not  other- 
wordly,  but  this- worldly.  Perhaps  it  will  serve  us 
beyond  this  world  of  time,  perhaps  it  will  not.  We 
will  wait  and  see.  Death  draws  a  curtain  between 
this  world  and  that  —  we  have  abiding  faith  that  what 
matters  there  matters  here,  and  matters  there  because 
it  matters  here.  ' '  Nothing  but  good  can  befall  a  good 
man."  The  only  way  to  be  worthy  of  continued  ex- 
istence is  to  exist  worthily  now.  We  have  hope,  I 
say,  of  the  power  of  religion  in  the  hereafter.  We 
are  certain  of  our  need  for  it  now. 

And  that  certainty  has  seized  upon  all  mankind, 
the  evidence  is  everywhere  about  us.  Sir  Arthur 
Conan  Doyle  declares  that  when  he  finished  his 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    199 

medical  studies  he  found  *  himself  a  convinced 
materialist,  and  a  convinced  materialist  he  remained 
for  many  years.  But  when  the  war  came  "it 
brought  earnestness  into  our  souls  and  made  us  look 
closer  into  our  beliefs  and  reassess  their  values." 
The  publication  by  a  secular  writer  of  a  book  on 
religion,  hot  from  the  crucible  of  his  own  soul,  devoted 
to  the  thesis  that  "Religion  is  the  first  thing  and  the 
last  thing,  and  until  a  man  has  found  God  and  been 
found  by  God  he  begins  at  no  beginning,  he  works 
to  no  end"— that  is  H.  G.  Wells'  book,  "God  the 
Invisible  King," —  and  its  appearance  and  the  lively 
interest  it  has  evoked  show  that  the  war  has  indeed 
brought  earnestness  into  our  souls.  You,  your- 
selves, yes,  all  of  us,  are  witnesses  to  it.  We  are 
undergoing  a  reawakening  of  religion  and  strangely 
enough,  though  men  die  by  millions,  this  revival  of 
religion  has  amazingly  little  to  do  with  the  hereafter. 
It  is  desperately  concerned  with  the  here  and  now. 

How  came  this  new-found  need  for  religion  into  the 
world  ?  The  Germans  are  responsible  for  it ;  they 
have  forced  the  human  race  to  this  discovery  as  to  so 
many  other  discoveries.  They  have  in  their  own 
person  shown  us  what  religion  is  not,  and  what  it 
must  be,  and  is.  If  they  win  this  war,  it  will  be  the 
overthrow  of  Christianity.  Never  before  has  the 
religion  of  compassion  been  so  defied  as  now. 

Let  me  show  you  two  pictures  —  the  first  from  Ger- 
many, the  second  from  the  Bible. 

"Inasmuch  as  in  all  ages, "  says  Nietzsche,  "as 
long  as  mankind  has  existed,  there  have  always  been 
human  herds  (family  alliances,  communities,  tribes, 


200  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

peoples,  states,  churches)  and  always  a  great  number 
who  obey  in  proportion  to  the  small  number  who 
command  —  in  view  thereof  of  the  fact  that 
obedience  has  been  most  practiced  and  fostered  among 
mankind  hitherto,  one  may  reasonably  suppose  that, 
generally  speaking,  the  need  thereof  is  now  innate  in 
every  one  as  a  kind  of  formal  conscience  which  gives 
the  command  :  Thou  shalt  unconditionally  do  some- 
thing, unconditionally  refrain  from  doing  something. 
In  short  'Thou  Shalt.'  This  need  tries  to  satisfy 
itself  and  to  fill  its  form  with  a  content;  according 
to  its  strength,  impatience  and  eagerness ;  it  thereby 
seizes  as  an  omnivorous  appetite  with  little  selec- 
tion, and  accepts  whatever  is  shouted  into  its  ear 
by  all  sorts  of  commanders  —  parents,  teachers,  laws, 
class  prejudices,  or  public  opinion." l  "  He  who  would 
command  finds  those  who  must  obey."2  "An  effort 
and  a  risk  seemed  all  commanding  unto  me;  and 
whenever  it  commandeth  the  living  thing  risketh 
itself.  Yes,  when  it  commandeth  himself,  then  also 
must  it  atone  for  its  commanding.  Of  its  own  law 
must  it  become  the  judge  and  avenger  and  victim."* 
"The  object  is  to  attain  that  enormous  energy  of 
greatness  which  can  model  the  man  of  the  future  by 
means  of  discipline,  and  also  by  means  of  the  anni- 
hilation of  millions  of  the  bungled  and  botched,  and 
which  can  yet  avoid  going  to  ruin  at  the  sight  of  the 
suffering  created  thereby  the  like  of  which  has  never 
been  seen  before." 4  "  He  believes  that  danger, 

J"  Beyond  Good  and  Evil,"  p.  120;  Levy's  translation. 

1 "  Will  to  Power,"  Vol.  I,  p.  105. 

3  Zarathustra,  II,  XXXIV.  4  "Will  to  Power,"  Vol.  II,  p.  368. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    201 

severity,  violence,  peril  in  the  street  and  in  the 
heart,  inequality  of  rights,  secrecy,  stoicism, 
seductive  art  and  deviltry  of  every  kind  —  in  short 
the  opposite  of  all  gregarious  desiderata  —  are  neces- 
sary for  the  elevation  of  man.  .  .  .  The  aim  should 
be  to  prepare  a  transvaluation  of  values  for  a 
particularly  strong  kind  of  man,  most  highly  gifted 
in  intellect  and  will,  and  to  this  end  slowly  and 
cautiously  to  liberate  in  him  a  whole  host  of  slandered 
instincts  hitherto  held  in  check.  Whoever  meditates 
about  this  problem  belongs  to  us,  the  free 
spirits.  .  .  ."  1  "  He  is  colder,  harder,  less  cautious, 
and  more  free  from  the  fear  of  public  opinion;  he 
does  not  possess  the  virtues  which  are  compatible 
with  respectability  and  with  being  respected,  nor 
any  of  those  things  which  are  counted  among  'the 
virtues  of  the  herd'  ....  He  would  rather  lie 
than  tell  the  truth  because  lying  requires  more  spirit 
and  will.  There  is  a  loneliness  in  his  heart  which 
neither  praise  nor  blame  can  reach,  because  he  is  his 
own  judge  from  whom  is  no  appeal."  2 

And  the  word  of  the  master  became  the  deed  of 
his  followers,  the  deeds  which  this  people  to  whom 
Nietzsche  was  a  prophet  and  lawgiver,  have  com- 
mitted. The  essence  of  Pan-Germanism,  says  one  of 
their  own  writers,  Dr.  Friederich  Curtius,  is  Atheism. 
Its  "purpose  is  nothing  less  than  to  compass  the 
suppression  of  the  Christian  faith  and  the  morality 
which  is  its  outcome.  A  German  religion  is  to  be 
born,  a  religion  allied  to  the  Woden  worship  of  our 
ancestors.  .  .  .  The  German  nation  representing 

V  Will  to  Power,"  Vol.  II,  p.  363.  2  Ibid.,  p.  366. 


202  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

the  noblest  and  most  favored  of  races,  the  loftiest 
revelation  of  humanity,  has  become  its  own  God." 

Anti-Christ  has  come,  for  this  people  denies  and 
tramples  on  all  things  Christian.  Ever  since  the 
war  began  mankind  has  felt  that  it  is  civilization 
itself  which  is  assaulted.  And  this  wholesale  de- 
fiance of  Christian  adjuration  and  precept  has  forced 
the  lesson  upon  us  that  civilization  and  Christianity 
are  not  indeed  two  things,  but  one.  He  who  talks  of 
religious  education  and  plans  and  devises  its  extension 
has  no  other  thought  than  to  preserve  in  a  day  of  peril 
and  of  terrible  undoing  all  that  the  race  holds  dear. 

Let  us  put  over  against  this  paranoia  of  the  Ger- 
mans some  statements  of  essential  Christian  belief. 
Israel  is  forever  talking  of  the  Eternal  and  saying 
that  man  achieves  not  by  power  but  by  His  righteous 
spirit.  The  Eternal  is  righteousness  and  loves 
righteousness.  From  Genesis  where  the  Eternal 
declares  "  I  know  him  [Abraham]  that  he  will  command 
his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  and  they 
shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord  to  do  justice  and 
judgment"1  down  through  the  long  ages  to  the  last 
word  of  Daniel,  the  prophet  of  the  Captivity,  the  note 
is  the  same :  "At  the  beginning  of  thy  supplications 
the  commandment  came  forth  and  I  am  come  to 
shew  thee.  .  .  .  Seventy  weeks  are  determined 
upon  thy  people  and  upon  thy  holy  city  to  finish 
the  transgression  .  .  .  and  to  make  an  end  of  sins 
and  to  make  reconciliation  for  iniquity  and  to  bring  in 
everlasting  righteousness."  2  The  Psalms  are  full  of 
it :  "But  I  trusted  in  Thee,  O  Lord ;  I  said,  Thou  art 

1  Genesis  xvui;  19.  2  Daniel  ix;  23  and  24. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    203 

my  God"  (Ps.  xxxi;  14).  "Blessed  is  the  Nation 
whose  God  is  the  Lord"  (Ps.  xxxm;  12).  "Their 
sorrows  shall  be  multiplied  that  hasten  after  another 
god"  (Ps.  xvi ;  4).  "Thou  satest  hi  the  throne 
judging  right"  (Ps.  ix;  4).  " The  Lord  trieth  the 
righteous  :  but  the  wicked  and  him  that  loveth  vio- 
lence his  soul  hateth  "  (Ps.  xi ;  5) .  "  Trust  hi  the  Lord 
and  do  good"  (Ps.  xxxvii ;  3).  "If  I  regard  iniquity 
in  my  heart  the  Lord  will  not  hear  me"  (Ps. 
LXVI;  18).  "Come,  ye  children,  hearken  unto  me; 
I  will  teach  you  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  Keep  thy 
tongue  from  evil  and  thy  lips  from  speaking  guile; 
Depart  from  evil  and  do  good,  seek  peace  and  pursue 
it"  (Ps.  xxxiv ;  11,  13,  14),  and  of  the  Eternal's 
enemies  David  says  :  "For  the  wicked  boasteth  of  his 
heart's  desire  and  blesses  the  covetous  whom  the 
Lord  abhorreth;  the  wicked  through  the  pride  of 
his  countenance  will  not  seek  after  God.  God  is 
not  in  all  his  thoughts.  His  ways  are  always  griev- 
ous ;  thy  judgments  are  far  above  out  of  his  sight ; 
as  for  all  his  enemies,  he  puff eth  at  them.  He  hath  said 
in  his  heart,  I  shall  not  be  moved  for  I  shall  never 
be  in  adversity.  His  mouth  is  full  of  cursing  and 
deceit  and  fraud,  under  his  tongue  is  mischief  and 
vanity.  .  .  .  Wherefore  doth  the  wicked  contemn 
God?  He  hath  said  in  his  heart,  Thou  wilt  not 
require  it.  Thou  hast  seen  it  for  thou  beholdest 
mischief  and  spite  to  requite  it  with  thy  hand ;  the 
poor  committeth  himself  unto  thee,  thou  art  the 
helper  of  the  fatherless.  Break  Thou  the  arm  of  the 
wicked  and  the  evil  man,  seek  out  his  wickedness 
till  thou  find  none"  (Ps.  x;  3-7,  13-15). 


204  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

We  are  speaking  of  religious  education.  There 
can  be  no  such  a  thing  as  education  until  there  is  a 
lesson  to  be  taught,  instruction  to  be  given,  compre- 
hended, and  acted  upon.  Rites  can  not  be  taught, 
they  can  only  be  performed.  If  Christianity  is  a 
religion  of  rites,  you  do  not  want  a  teacher,  you  want 
a  priest  to  perform  a  ritual.  A  great  many  folks 
think  that  Christ  came  to  perform  a  rite,  the  most 
significant  sacrificial  rite  ever  performed  on  earth. 
To  others  he  is  a  teacher  sent  from  God  —  the  great 
Teacher.  What  did  he  teach?  Three  lessons,  I 
think,  that  the  world  must  learn  if  it  would  be  Chris- 
tian, and  that  we  must  teach  if  we  would  be  teachers 
of  Christianity. 

The  first  is  that  the  Eternal  is  our  Father ;  that  his 
Spirit  of  righteousness  moves  in  all  things  and  is  the 
very  life  of  the  universe.  Eye  hath  not  seen  him 
nor  ear  heard,  he  does  not  come  to  us  from  outside, 
he  is  within  us,  nearer  than  hands  and  feet  —  a 
firm  conviction  assuring  us  that  though  the  heavens 
fall  and  the  earth  be  wracked,  and  the  wicked  rage 
and  destruction  and  sin  seem  to  command  all  things, 
yet  is  righteousness  the  law  of  the  Eternal,  and  we 
must  not  for  a  moment  doubt  it.  To  hold  fast  to  this 
conviction  is  hard,  for  at  times  such  as  these  we  live 
in,  men  seem  to  forget  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong,  God  seems  to  go  out  of  existence  and  life 
to  become  a  great  orgy  of  vanity  and  idiocy ;  yet 
we  must  have  faith,  the  kind  of  faith  that  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  uttered  when  he  said,  "I  believe 
in  a  principle  of  decency  in  things,  yea,  though  I 
woke  in  hell,  should  still  believe  it." 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    205 

And  the  second  lesson,  which  the  great  Teacher 
taught  is :  you,  I,  every  man  is  a  son  of  the  Eternal 
Father.  Christ  never  forgot  that  relation.  He 
repeatedly  spoke  of  himself  as  the  elder  brother,  and 
of  the  rest  of  us  as  members  of  that  family.  Think 
what  a  transformation  it  would  bring  in  our  lives  if 
we  would  take  this  seriously  and  think  of  ourselves  in 
that  way,  —  if  every  morning  when  we  got  up,  we 
should  say  to  ourselves,  Son  of  God,  what  work  is 
worthy  of  thee  to-day,  or  when  faced  by  a  temptation, 
we  should  remember  to  ask  ourselves,  Son  of  God, 
what  action  befits  thee  now? 

And  the  third  lesson  follows  immediately  from  these, 
if  God  is  the  Father  and  I  am  his  son,  and  you  are 
his  son,  then  we  are  brothers,  brothers  to  all  men, 
members  of  the  family  of  mankind,  in  duty  bound  to 
live  in  the  community,  by  the  community,  and  for 
the  community,  all  members  one  of  another. 

That  is  Christ's  program,  that  is  his  revelation. 
It  is  to  that  life  that  he  is  the  way.  And  those  who 
study  religion  are  occupied  in  learning  what  that 
righteousness  is  which  is  the  essence  of  the  Eter- 
nal, and  in  identifying  themselves  with  it  trait  by 
trait  in  their  daily  giving  and  taking  with  their 
fellowmen. 

"May  it  not  be  said,"  writes  Sabatier, " that  for 
our  contemporaries,  religion  is  the  instinctive  need  by 
which  a  man  is  led  to  realize  his  better  self,  to  unite 
with  those  who  can  serve  him  as  guides  or  companions 
in  that  difficult  task  and  to  endeavor  to  realize 
together  with  them  what  the  inner  witness  pre- 
scribes ? 


206  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

"In  so  far  as  man  considers,  reflects,  and  discusses, 
philosophy  exists.  Religion  exists  when  man,  ceasing 
to  be  merely  a  witness  of  his  own  life,  and  that  of  the 
community,  throws  his  will  into  the  balance,  proclaim- 
ing himself  a  collaborator  in  the  eternal  task  which 
he  apprehends  and  to  which  he  devotes  himself."1 

I  am  not  at  all  interested  in  that  religious  in- 
struction which  consists  only  in  the  memorization 
of  portions  of  the  Bible,  the  creed  and  the  catechism. 
There  is  to  be  sure  some  gain  in  enlarging  one's 
vocabulary  from  such  a  rich  collection  of  words  as 
the  Bible  contains,  but  it  is  gain  of  language  merely, 
and  while  that  is  valuable,  we  lose  our  object  if  we 
stop  at  that.  And  I  do  not  believe  in  religious 
education  merely  as  an  effort  to  make  young  folks 
familiar  with  the  literature  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Matchless  though  that  literature  is,  it  would  be  a 
very  profanation  of  opportunity  to  study  it,  and 
not  to  study  it  as  vastly  more  than  a  series  of  poetical 
or  of  prose  narratives.  It  is  a  question  whether  any 
of  the  productions  of  the  past,  which  is  worth  study- 
ing, is  to  be  treated  merely  as  an  opportunity  for 
literary  analysis  or  literary  appreciation.  The  object 
of  the  great  writers  was  not  to  produce  literature,  but 
to  counsel,  warn,  and  encourage,  that  is,  to  instruct 
their  readers.  To  get  that  counsel,  warning  and 
encouragement  is  the  prime  reason  for  studying  the 
Bible. 

And  I  do  not  think  we  can  agree  with  the  French- 
man, Jouffroy,  that  when  the  church  teaches  us  its 
catechism  after  the  commonly  accepted  fashion,  and 

1  Sabatier,  "  France  Today,"  p.  19 ;  Button  &  Co. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    207 

then  "asks  the  young  Christian,  whence  he  came? 
he  knows  it.  Whither  he  is  going  ?  he  knows  it.  How 
he  is  to  attain  his  end?  he  knows  it.  She  asks 
this  poor  child,  who  never  in  all  his  lif  e  thought  about 
such  matters,  why  he  is  here,  and  what  will  become 
of  him  after  death?  he  gives  a  sublime  answer. 
She  asks  how  the  world  came  into  existence,  and  why 
God  made  it  and  the  plants  and  animals  ?  How  the 
earth  was  peopled,  how  diversity  of  language, 
how  suffering  originated?  He  knows  all."1 

That  method  of  religious  instruction  has  been  tried, 
and  has  proven  to  be  worse  than  a  failure.  The  one 
nation  which  has  made  a  place  for  religious  in- 
struction of  that  sort  in  its  public  schools,  as  well  as 
in  its  churches  and  its  homes,  for  all  these  years  has 
shown  itself  to  be  more  unprincipled  than  a  society 
of  criminals,  more  savage  than  the  most  ferocious 
savages.  While  it  memorized  and  repeated  the 
words  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus,  its  people  plotted 
murder  and  every  form  of  anti-Christian  wickedness, 
and  said  in  its  heart,  there  is  no  God. 

We  can  not  do  without  theology  any  more  than 
we  can  do  without  philosophy,  for  the  most  important 
thing  about  any  of  us  at  all  times,  and  in  all  places, 
is  the  notion  of  the  nature  of  things,  the  notion  of 
what  sort  of  a  place  this  universe  is,  that  he  carries 
about  with  him.  There  is  a  tendency  to  delusion 
in  each  of  us,  which  must  constantly  be  combated 
or  our  theology  will  sink  into  idolatry  or  become 
fouled  with  superstition.  The  only  way  to  keep  our 

1  Jouffroy,  "  Melanges  Philosophiques,"  p.  424,  quoted  by  Bruce,  in 
"  Social  Aspects  of  Christian  Morality." 


208  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

notions  of  God  from  becoming  incrusted  with  false 
opinions,  which  do  both  us  and  Him  dishonor,  is  to 
be  critical  of  them,  to  question  them,  to  talk  about 
them,  to  put  them  to  the  test  and  prove  them.  The 
trouble  with  memorizing  as  a  method  of  religious 
instruction  is  that  it  prevents  that.  The  German 
people  memorized  their  religion  and  threw  themselves 
heart  and  soul  into  proving  to  themselves  and  to  each 
other  that  they  were  far  too  great  a  people  to  be 
bound  by  the  ordinary  notions  of  morality,  until  they 
actually  were  convinced  by  their  words,  and  retain 
their  religion  which  forbids  such  action  merely  as  an 
empty  shell. 

I  heard  the  Vicar  of  the  Cathedral  in  Montreal 
preach  a  most  remarkable  sermon  about  a  year  ago 
at  Appleton  Chapel.  He  spoke  of  the  changes  which 
the  war  is  making  and  particularly  of  the  change  in 
religion.  He  referred  to  the  Jewish  conception  of 
the  Eternal  as  demanding  righteousness  and  to  the 
fact  that  Judaism  was  wholly  unable  to  formulate 
definitions  of  its  beliefs.  The  Greeks  supplied  these 
definitions,  they  organized  the  creeds  of  Christianity, 
and  we  cling  to  them  as  though  they  were  the  essence 
of  the  matter.  We  say  that  people  must  accept  the 
creed  to  join  the  church,  yet  we  know  that  they  are 
saved  by  character.  We  must  redefine  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  terms  of  goodness  and  character  and  all 
good  men  must  unite  together  to  build  up  the 
earth. 

Here  is  a  new  program  for  Christianity,  but  it  is 
an  old  program.  It  is  Abraham's  program,  David's 
program,  Daniel's  program,  Christ's  program. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND   THE  WAR    209 

There  never  was  a  time  since  civilization  began 
when  its  program  called  so  loudly  for  championship 
and  support.  We  live  in  the  age  of  completed 
sinfulness.  Righteousness,  goodness,  kindliness, 
meekness,  and  every  other  virtue  which  Christ  taught, 
and  with  which  he  and  the  prophets  and  lawgivers 
before  him  sought  to  save  the  world  have  been 
derided  as  mere  feebleness  and  unmanliness.  Shall 
the  world  forsake  this  way  or  shall  it  turn  upon 
the  enemy  and  destroy  him  by  borrowing  his  weapons 
and  using  them  against  him  ? 

There  never  has  been  so  clear  a  proof  of  the  power 
of  education  in  all  history  as  that  which  Germany 
provides.  Here  was  a  people  obviously  devoted  to 
idealism,  to  Christianity,  to  homely  life,  and  to  the 
simpler  virtues,  whose  leaders  many  years  ago  set 
about  converting  it  to  their  mad  plan  of  capturing 
the  world.  They  used  the  school  and  the  school- 
master as  their  instrument,  and  employed  the  drill 
sergeant  and  the  parade  ground  to  complete  the 
work  which  he  began.  They  pounded  in  patriotism, 
they  indoctrinated  every  German  with  the  thought 
of  national  superiority.  They  caused  them  to 
repudiate  their  own  natural  kindliness,  to  turn 
against  the  teachings  of  their  faith,  to  make  nothing 
of  their  habitual  morality,  to  take  little  thought  for 
life  itself  if  it  could  be  offered  to  help  to  build  the  new 
Moloch,  which  the  nation  was  obsessed  to  erect. 

We  cannot  make  out  how  their  minds  work  or 
understand  why  they  value  these  things,  we  hate 
and  abhor  their  actions,  yet  we  must  admit  that  their 
instructors  have  done  the  job  thoroughly;  there  is 


210  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

among  them  a  unanimity  in  wickedness,  which  is 
appalling.  If  we  should  bend  ourselves  with  the 
same  energy  to  teaching  the  lesson  of  righteousness, 
could  we  not  hope  for  as  complete  a  result  ? 

A  friend  of  mine  has  recently  called  my  attention 
to  this  more  encouraging  aspect  of  things.  His 
question  concerned  Democracy.  "We  know  very 
well,"  he  said,  "what  notions  destroy  it,  and  what 
notions  make  it  strong.  We  also  know  the  public 
school  is  its  conserver,  that  if  it  can  be  saved  any- 
where, the  place  of  its  salvation  is  the  public  school. 
Now  let  us,  therefore,  with  one  accord,  after  the 
German  fashion,  by  incessant  indoctrination  commit 
the  children  of  the  public  schools  to  the  thoughts  and 
actions  which  conserve  democracy;  for  example, 
every  public  office  is  created  to  accomplish  a  certain 
work,  not  for  the  sake  of  providing  a  living  merely 
to  the  person  who  holds  it.  Could  we  not  by  in- 
cessantly bearing  down  upon  the  fact  that  public 
office  is  opportunity  for  service,  in  a  generation, 
create  a  body  of  public  servants  who  would  have  no 
other  notion  of  their  work?" 

It  is  a  great  undertaking,  yet  it  can  be  done,  but 
only  upon  one  condition,  that  the  teachers  shall  first 
be  trained  to  the  point  of  being  obsessed  by  that  idea. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  religious  education.  It 
is  surely  easier  to  train  the  young  to  an  unflinching 
devotion  to  righteousness  than  it  is  to  train  them  to 
an  unnatural  wickedness  ^vhen  all  that  it  promises  is 
an  opportunity  to  die  for  its  unholy  cause.  Yet  the 
Germans  have  accomplished  that,  and  we  may 
profit  by  their  experience  to  undertake  the  opposite. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AND  THE  WAR    211 

Religious  education  is  not  different  in  anything, 
save  in  its  purpose,  from  the  other  forms  of  education. 
The  same  principles  apply,  the  psychological  pro- 
cedure and  the  methods  are  the  same.  The  lessons 
(I  mean  the  collection  of  verses,  and  chapters  in  the 
hands  of  the  learner)  are  not  the  chief  thing.  Next 
to  the  learner  the  teacher  is.  The  choicest  and  most 
life-giving  material  in  the  whole  Bible  may  become 
repellant  and  forbidding,  or  at  least  merely  a  tale 
which  is  told,  in  the  hands  of  a  poor  teacher ;  whereas, 
it  is  sure  to  be  surcharged  with  life  in  the  hands  of  a 
good  one.  The  main  thing  in  this  form  of  education, 
as  in  every  other,  is  first  to  determine  what  it  is  we 
are  trying  to  do,  what  result  we  are  seeking  to  accom- 
plish. The  next  step  is  to  gather  the  tools,  which 
contribute  to  that  result,  and  of  these  the  trained 
and  skillful  teacher  is  by  far  the  greatest. 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  AND  WHY  WE 
UNDERTAKE  IT  NOW1 

THIS  is  a  war  of  nations.  It  is  everywhere 
conceded  that  the  victory,  when  it  comes,  will 
belong  to  that  nation  or  group  of  nations  which 
comes  out  of  the  conflict  least  broken,  best  prepared 
in  spite  of  the  demoralization  of  battle  to  take  up  the 
pursuits  of  peace.  To  make  war  to  the  utmost, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  make  as  active  preparation 
as  may  be  for  the  only  kind  of  peace  which  gives 
our  war  meaning  or  value,  is  our  program.  That 
is  the  program  of  England  also.  Of  the  many 
manifestations  of  her  unconquerable  spirit,  none 
is  more  striking  or  convincing  than  that,  contrary 
to  what  might  have  been  expected,  her  people  are 
not  wholly  consumed  by  the  demands  of  war,  but  have 
energy  and  interest  enough  to  plan  a  reform  in  their 
national  education  as  significant  and  almost  as  far- 
reaching  as  the  reform  of  1870.  The  very  tension 
of  war  has  aroused  them  to  consider  a  thorough- 
going augmentation  of  elementary  education  as  in- 
dispensable to  the  national  welfare.  Mr.  Herbert 
Fisher,  the  eminent  president  of  the  British  Board 
of  Education,  has  for  some  months  been  riding  a 
circuit  of  Great  Britain  telling  its  people  that  "the 

1  Inaugural  address,  Los  Angeles  State  Normal  School,  January  5, 
1918. 

212 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  213 

whole  future  of  our  race,  and  of  our  position  in  the 
world,  depends  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  arrangements 
that  we  make  for  education,"  and  asking  them  to 
support  the  Education  Bill  that  his  department  has 
introduced,  which  prohibits  the  employment  of 
children  attending  an  elementary  school  during  the 
hours  that  the  schools  are  in  session,  provides  for 
all  children  a  full-time  elementary  education  up  to 
the  age  of  fourteen  years,  and  prevents  their  edu- 
cation from  coming  to  an  end  when  they  leave  the 
elementary  school,  by  requiring  that  all  young 
persons  who  have  not  received  a  full-time  secondary 
education  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen  years  or  are  not 
under  suitable  instruction,  must  attend  daytime 
continuation  classes  for  320  hours  per  year  from  the 
age  of  fourteen  to  the  age  of  eighteen.  And,  al- 
though the  finances  of  Great  Britain  are  at  present 
under  a  somewhat  heavy  strain,  yet  the  Commons  is 
asked  this  year  to  appropriate  $19,000,000  more  for 
education  than  it  appropriated  last  year.  The 
Minister's  appeal  to  his  people  to  regard  education 
as  a  most  important  branch  of  the  national  service 
has  resulted  in  an  active  recruiting  of  the  teaching 
forces  by  the  college  women  of  England.  Though 
she  is  fighting  for  her  existence  as  a  nation,  Great 
Britain  is  more  alive  to  the  needs  of  education  to-day 
than  ever  before  in  her  history. 

It  is  not  otherwise  with  France  —  a  few  months 
ago  the  regents  of  the  University  of  New  York  sent 
their  distinguished  Commissioner  of  Education  to 
study  and  report  upon  conditions  there.  "I  went," 
says  Mr.  Finley,  "to  see  the  schools  in  which  France's 


214  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

valor  has  been  nourished."     He  came  back  with  the 
warning  that 

The  intellectual  and  moral  discipline,  through  which  the 
children  of  one  generation  become  the  citizenry  of  the  next, 
must  be  vigorously  maintained  in  war  time.  France  has 
restricted  the  use  of  food,  fuel  and  light,  but  she  has  not  taken 
from  any  child  the  heritage  in  which  alone  is  the  prophecy  of 
an  enduring  nation. 

The  army  and  the  school  are  the  two  agencies 
upon  which  the  state  relies  in  its  day  of  extremity. 
If  its  army  has  been  weak,  it  must  make  it  strong  and 
retrench  in  other  departments  of  its  life  to  do  that. 
The  school  has  an  equal  claim  upon  it.  It  exists  for 
the  general  benefit  also.  It,  too,  is  for  public  safety. 
The  peril  of  our  country  brings  a  new  realization  of  its 
importance.  It  is  the  agency  created  by  govern- 
ment to  consciously  unify  people,  to  consciously  and 
systematically  conserve  ideals,  to  consciously  mold 
and  integrate  public  opinion,  to  consciously  and 
persistently  safeguard  and  increase  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  coming  generation,  to  consciously 
shape  the  instinctive  desires  and  attitudes  of  the 
young  to  social  ends,  to  transform  the  diffused  and 
heedless  energy  of  youth  into  socially  necessary 
forms  of  skill,  and  withal  to  incite  each  child  to 
vigorous  and  noble  aspiration.  If  we  are  not  dis- 
appointed when  the  President  of  the  United  States 
calls  upon  us  to  show  ourselves  a  united  people,  we 
must  remember  that  the  unity  with  which  we  stand 
together  is  no  happy  accident,  but  the  product  of  an 
intelligence  which  has  been  taught  to  distinguish 
right  from  wrong  by  indoctrination,  long,  patient 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  215 

and,  as  we  now  see,  effective ;  if  in  this  our  hour  of 
destiny,  we  are  elated  to  discover  that  we  are  indeed 
a  people  who  fear  slavery  more  than  death,  it  is 
because  we  have  been  taught  that  lesson  from  our 
infancy ;  if  the  minds  of  folks  are  clear,  stable,  and 
agreed  about  what  we  must  do,  it  is  the  schools  which 
have  made  it  possible  for  the  public  to  have  an 
opinion ;  if  our  youth,  who  take  up  arms  by  millions, 
are  spirited,  brave,  and  strong,  the  public  school  has 
done  its  part  by  them ;  if  in  the  moment  in  which 
they  go  forth  to  battle  there  is  no  frenzy  of  delight, 
no  barbaric  lust  to  fight  and  conquer  and  despoil, 
but  everywhere  the  subdued  feeling  of  stern  and 
regrettable  necessity,  and  a  deep  preference  for  the 
unboastful  ways  of  peace,  it  is  because  the  school  has 
tamed  our  inborn  savagery  and  taught  our  feral 
nature  to  prefer  the  kindlier  life ;  if  we  are  resourceful 
and  inventive,  skilled  in  all  the  implements  of  con- 
struction and  to  shape  and  use  the  weapons  of  defen- 
sive war,  it  is  because  the  school  has  made  us  all 
familiar  with  "the  go"  of  things;  if  ten  thousand 
forges  are  at  this  moment  engaged  in  shaping  cannon, 
and  a  thousand  factories  build  aeroplanes,  and  five 
hundred  shipyards  construct  ships,  and  men  are 
drilling  everywhere  to  man  them,  it  is  because  our 
500,000  schoolrooms  have  quietly  been  shaping  us 
through  the  years  to  meet  just  such  eventualities. 
In  times  like  these,  the  public  school  gets  a  new 
mandate  from  the  people.  Its  reason  for  being 
becomes  clear  to  everybody ;  its  work  becomes  a 
new  concern  of  all.  It  is  seen  to  be  the  factory  of 
democracy,  the  agency  which  conditions  and  creates 


216  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

the  national  life.  It  is  urged  to  bend  itself  with  re- 
doubled energy  to  its  task.  If  it  has  done  much  and 
well  in  the  past,  it  must  do  more  and  better  in  the 
future.  The  Germans,  we  are  told,  "are  all  taught 
why  they  should  not  wish  to  be  free;  but  we  are 
not  taught  why  we  should  wish  to  be  free."  We 
accept  that  as  instinctive.  It  must  in  days  to  come 
become  articulate.  There  are  many  kinds  of  freedom 
and  many  ways  by  which  real  freedom  once  gained 
may  be  lost  in  spite  of  our  devotion.  It  is  a  pretty 
blind  and  confused  notion  to  most  of  us,  and  the 
means  for  safeguarding  it  are  rather  obscure  and 
indefinite  save  when  our  organized  liberties  are 
menaced  from  without.  We  must  make  the  main- 
tenance and  conserving  of  our  democratic  nation  a 
universally  comprehended  program.  There  has  been 
much  talk  about  Americanizing  the  foreigner  who 
comes  among  us.  We  are  all  being  Americanized 
nowadays.  It  is  a  delightful  experience.  We  shall 
not  be  slow  in  claiming  a  similar  privilege  for  our 
children.  After  the  first  rush  of  arming  is  past  we 
shall  have  educational  drives  as  well  as  Liberty 
Loan  drives,  Red  Cross  drives,  Food  Conservation 
and  Red  Triangle  drives.  The  nation  at  high  ten- 
sion is  consulting  its  own  welfare.  Quite  apart  from 
the  necessity  of  devising  ways  and  means  of  pro- 
tracting its  self-defense,  a  people  sacrificing  itself 
for  liberty  can  not  escape  a  lively  interest  in  the 
generation  it  is  striving  to  make  free.  "We  arm 
for  men  that  are  to  be."  Shall  we  not  arm  them  as 
well  as  ourselves  ? 

This  school  believes  it  has  a  part  to  play  in  that 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  217 

educational  arming.  It  is  fortunately  situated  in 
the  midst  of  a  series  of  the  most  active  and  perhaps 
the  most  successful  public  schools  in  this  or  any 
other  country.  It  takes  pride  in  them  and  dares  to 
believe  itself  responsible  in  part  for  their  well-being, 
for  those  who  have  labored  here  in  past  time  have  not 
struggled  and  toiled  in  vain.  But  it  longs  to  perform 
an  even  larger  service,  for  it  aims  to  be  an  institution 
which  shall  add  to  its  worth. 

We  do  not  agree  with  Nietzsche  when  he  says : 

The  education  of  the  masses  can  not  ...  be  our  aim;  but 
rather  the  education  of  a  few  picked  men  for  great  and  lasting 
work. 

The  few  picked  men  theory  of  life  seems  to  us  to 
hasten  to  destruction.  That  may  be  the  ideal  of 
education  in  a  master  and  slave  autocracy;  it  is 
not  and  can  not  be  the  aim  of  education  in  a  demo- 
cratic state  such  as  we  believe  ours  to  be  and  are 
resolved  to  increase  and  perpetuate.  Our  ministry 
is  therefore  to  the  elementary  schools  and  through 
them  to  the  secondary  schools,  the  colleges  and  the 
universities.  Contrary  to  widely  accepted  notions, 
we  look  upon  their  welfare  even  in  war  time  as 
subordinate  to  no  other  concern  of  the  nation. 
While  many  treat  them  with  condescension  because 
they  teach  elementary  studies,  we  regard  them  as 
the  most  important  of  all  just  for  that  reason.  We 
think  that  the  elements  which  they  teach  are  not 
childish  things  to  be  put  away  when  the  student  no 
longer  thinks  as  a  child  or  speaks  as  a  child,  but  are 
instead  the  fundamentals  of  the  activities  of  the 
human  race,  lessons  which  it  begins  in  babyhood, 


218  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

but  which  it  can  not  put  aside  so  long  as  life  endures. 
"If  we  think  of  it,  all  that  a  university  can  do  for 
us,"  says  Carlyle,  "is  still  what  the  first  school 
began  doing  —  teach  us  to  read."  The  elements 
of  the  higher,  or  better,  the  later,  schools'  whole 
program  are  begun  in  the  first  school  which  the  child 
attends.  It  teaches  him  the  common  language,  and 
lays  a  foundation  for  all  his  subsequent  study  of  the 
mother  tongue ;  it  teaches  him  to  write,  to  compose 
his  own  letters,  to  draft  his  own  little  essays,  and  so 
makes  a  beginning  of  the  difficult  subject  which  his 
maturer  years  will  study  and  practise  as  English 
composition.  It  gives  him  his  first  lessons  in  the 
great  art  of  calculation;  his  subsequent  study  of 
mathematics  will  be  profitable  or  unprofitable  to 
him  in  proportion  to  the  success  with  which  he 
grasps  and  learns  to  work  with  the  notions  which 
are  symbolized  by  figures.  It  introduces  him  to  the 
yesterdays  of  the  human  race  and  tries  to  make  him 
see  that  events  and  actions  produce  other  events  and 
actions  here  in  this  world  of  time;  all  history  is 
his  now  for  the  asking.  It  is  in  his  first  school  that 
he  begins  to  examine  trees  and  plants,  and  stones 
and  soils,  and  forms  his  notions  of  the  universe  and 
starts  his  conquest  and  domestication  of  nature.  It 
is  sometimes  said  that  the  university  exists  to  train 
leaders.  It  is,  perhaps,  more  exact  to  say  that  it 
exists  to  train  to  yet  larger  leadership  the  leaders 
whom  the  elementary  and  the  secondary  schools 
send  to  it.  Its  leaders  are  leaders  before  they 
arrive  at  the  university,  and  but  for  distinguishing 
themselves  in  the  elementary  schools,  they  would 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  219 

hardly  make  their  way  to  the  university  at  all ;  had 
not  the  first  chapters  of  the  romance  of  learning 
appealed  to  them,  they  would  have  had  no  interest  in 
the  later  chapters  of  its  story.  There  is  good  ground 
for  believing  that  the  youth  is  more  often  made 
into  a  scholar  by  his  first  teacher  than  by  his  last 
one.  At  any  rate,  he  seems  either  to  learn  how  to 
study  in  the  elementary  school  or  almost  never  to 
learn  how  to  study  at  all.  If  we  but  have  good 
elementary  schools,  all  the  other  educational  blessings 
will  add  themselves  unto  us,  but  if  we  make  the 
mistake  of  neglecting  them  and  give  the  substance 
of  our  attention  to  the  education  which  belongs  to 
later  life,  we  shall  fail  to  make  it  enduring.  Another 
way  of  saying  this  is,  that  only  an  intelligent  people 
has  need  for  universities.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that 
it  was  not  until  the  common-school  revival  or  indeed 
until  the  free-school  system  had  begun  to  build 
itself  strong  at  the  end  of  our  Civil  War,  that  the 
colleges  of  our  country  amounted  to  much  of  any- 
thing or  began  to  be  of  any  very  vital  service. 

Considerations  such  as  these  force  us  to  claim  for 
the  elementary  schools  a  larger  measure  of  assistance 
than  they  have  had  in  the  past.  Their  work  must 
be  done,  though  other  forms  of  education  wait. 
What  that  indispensable  work  is,  calls  for  careful 
definition.  We  derive  no  encouragement  nowadays 
from  the  assurance  that  young  folks  are  spending  a 
proper  fraction  of  their  waking  lives  in  keeping 
company  with  spelling,  arithmetic,  geography,  and 
history.  We  no  longer  get  any  comfort  whatever 
from  the  thought  that  though  they  may  not  be 


220  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

learning  anything  which  they  will  ever  have  occa- 
sion to  use,  their  minds  are  in  some  mysterious  way 
being  made  better  and  stronger  than  they  were 
before.  There  is  no  magic  in  studies.  We  no 
longer  look  up  to  them  or  say  prayers  to  them  or 
perform  rites  of  homage  and  worship  in  their  presence. 
There  may  have  been  a  time  when  woodcutters  pros- 
trated themselves  before  their  axes  or  hunters  said 
prayers  to  their  rifles,  but  that  was  in  the  super- 
stitious days  before  they  had  learned  that  an  ax  or  a 
rifle  has  no  value  save  as  one  can  use  it.  Just  so 
with  studies;  they  have  no  life  in  them,  no  power 
to  bless  or  transform  us.  They  are  not  centers  or 
sources  of  energy.  Though  our  tendency  to  delusion 
may  hypostatize  them  and  treat  them  as  self-existing 
entities,  they  have  no  beneficent  vitality  at  all. 
They  are  not  ends  but  means,  nothing  but  tools  which 
the  race  has  wrought  out  to  assist  its  members  in 
the  great  business  of  living,  tools  which  we  must 
learn  to  use  if  we  would  arm  ourselves  for  the 
struggle  of  existence. 

This  world  has  at  last  reached  the  stage  where  it 
sees  that  philosophy  is  the  determining  factor  in 
man's  being;  that  conflicting  notions  of  the  way 
to  think  of,  and  plan,  human  arrangements  are 
responsible  for  the  bloodshed  and  the  devastating 
woes  which  now  so  overwhelmingly  beset  the  earth. 
A  great  prayer  goes  up  from  every  land  for  sounder 
notions  of  the  way  to  live.  This  red  baptism  of 
agony  and  death  is  purging  us  of  our  delusions  and 
vanities  and  bringing  us  to  the  essential  realities. 
Education  can  not  escape  that  purging.  It,  too, 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  221 

must  cut  away  unessentials ;  it,  too,  must  abandon 
confusion,  waste,  and  vanity,  and  be  guided  by  a 
philosophy.  That  philosophy  will  not  be  material- 
ism, for  we  have  all  seen  that  material  things  can  not 
function  as  ultimate  motives.  It  will  not  be  a  romantic 
sentimentalism,  for  that,  too,  has  been  found  to 
be  as  humanly  destructive  as  the  lust  for  things.  It 
will  be  inevitably  an  utilitarianism,  for  we  now  know 
with  tried  certainty  that  nothing  counts  but  that 
which  really  and  vitally  serves  the  good  of  folks. 
Seek  ye  first  a  sound  philosophy,  therefore,  and  all 
things  else  will  be  added  unto  you,  and  above  all, 
seek  philosophy,  ye  who  are  teachers ! 

As  we  look  back  upon  our  past  we  see  that  we  did 
and  suffered  many  things  before  the  war  which  we 
can  not  go  on  doing  now.  We  talked  of  knowledge 
as  an  end  in  itself,  we  said  we  taught  literature  for 
the  sake  of  literature,  science  for  the  sake  of  science, 
spelling  for  the  sake  of  spelling,  history  just  because 
it  was  history,  and  geography  for  the  sake  of  geog- 
raphy. We  know  now  that  that  was  gibberish, 
rapid,  unmeaning  jargon,  if  it  was  not,  indeed,  some- 
thing worse.  We  sometimes  said  that  though  we 
were  not  training  our  students  to  do  anything  in 
particular,  we  were  helping  them  to  do  many  things 
in  general.  We  have  now  learned  to  sharpen  our 
purposes  so  that  we  may  not  allow  those  who  come 
under  our  influence  to  waste  themselves  upon  vain 
things.  This  school  feels  that  it  has  a  duty  to  help 
the  elementary  school  teachers  of  Southern  California 
to  distinguish  worth  from  unworth  and  to  reconstruct 
their  work.  They  ask  us  for  that  help.  We  have 


222  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

been  placed  together  here  in  this  favored  corner  of 
earth  evidently  that  we  may  labor  together.     We 
are  free   from  bondage    to  a  constraining   educa- 
tional tradition.     We  can  work  together  to  fabricate 
the  future,  we  can  make  education  produce  results 
such  as  it  has  not  yet  produced  for  any  of  us,  we  can 
separate  the  wheat  from  the  chaff  in  school  studies. 
Instead  of  teaching  spelling  for  the  sake  of  spelling  we 
can  put  a  committee  of  the  best-informed  special- 
ists in  all  the  schools    of   this  region  to  work  to 
select    from    the    400,000    words    in    the    English 
language  the  1000  words,  more  or  less,  which  folks 
have  need  to  spell  when  they  write;    and  having 
thus  sorted  the  few  words  which  we  all  need  to  know 
how   to   spell  from   the  many   which  it  would  be 
foolishness  and  waste  of  time  to  study,  our  committee 
can  next  hunt  through  the  literature  which  reports 
the  experiments  which  have  been  made,  and  tell  us 
what  is  the  best  way  to  go  about  studying  the  spelling 
of  these  words  so  that  every  child  shall  have  full 
opportunity  to  learn  to  spell  them.     Another  con- 
joint committee  selected  from  the  schools  and  from 
the   faculty   of   the   normal   school   can   present   a 
similar  plan  for  the  teaching  of  reading.     Another 
one  can  study  and  report  on  how  to  acquire  the 
difficult  art  of  penmanship.     We  have  been  told  for 
years  that  arithmetic  should  be  reduced  to  lower 
terms   and   better   results  should   be  gotten   in  its 
teaching.     We  all  agree  to  that,  but  no  one  knows 
just  what  lessons  in  arithmetic  should  be  taught 
and  what  should  be  omitted  and  just  how  they 
should  be  taught  to  get  the  results  that  the  schools 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  223 

are  expected  to  produce.  We  can  have  a  committee 
of  experts  work  upon  that  problem  and  when  they 
bring  in  their  report  we  can  incorporate  it  into  our 
courses  of  study  and  with  one  accord  go  to  work  upon 
that  better  plan.  Instead  of  continuing  to  teach 
10,000  facts  a  year  to  each  school  child  who  attempts 
to  study  geography,  we  can  call  together  a  group  of 
experts  who  shall  select  for  us  those  five  hundred 
geographical  facts,  more  or  less,  which  each  school 
child  should  learn  to  work  with  in  his  use  of  that 
subject.  We  can  in  a  similar  fashion  find  out  what 
are  the  essential  lessons  which  should  become 
organic  principles  in  every  child  who  studies  the 
history  of  our  country.  We  can  perform  the  same 
service  for  our  common  study  of  our  language,  of 
music,  art,  manual  training,  elementary  science,  and 
physical  training.  When  we  have  worked  out  our  pur- 
poses and  aims  and  have  shaped  our  courses  and 
our  means,  we  can  then  intelligently  supervise  our 
teaching  and  weigh  and  measure  its  results. 

To  the  question,  then,  what  may  a  normal  school 
do  for  the  community  in  the  midst  of  which  it  is 
planted?  we  reply,  it  can  be  an  organizing  center 
for  the  work  of  that  community's  schools.  But  it 
can  not  do  that  if  it  conceives  of  its  function  narrowly ; 
it  can  not  do  that  if  it  stands  apart  from  the  educa- 
tional agencies  of  its  neighborhood.  It  is  created 
by  the  state  to  serve,  and  serve  it  must,  if  it  would 
fulfill  its  mission. 

It  must  not  merely  accept  students  who  apply  for 
its  instruction,  it  must  select  them.  It  must  send 
its  representatives  into  the  high  schools  to  urge  the 


224  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

importance  of  the  teacher's  calling  upon  young  men 
and  young  women  who  are  engaged  in  choosing  the 
form  of  service  which  they  shall  attempt  to  render  to 
society.  It  must  do  its  utmost  when  they  come  to 
its  classes  to  help  them  to  a  vision  of  the  life  of  man 
here  on  this  earth,  and  to  fit  them  to  guide  and  direct 
that  life  to  worthy  ends.  And,  when  after  careful 
proving  they  are  guaranteed  by  us  as  fit  and  able 
to  be  intrusted  with  the  instruction  of  the  young,  we 
should  follow  them  into  their  classrooms  with  our 
encouragement  and  our  help  to  see  to  it  that  the 
labor  which  the  state  has  committed  to  us  by  no 
means  fails  to  be  performed. 

Since  the  art  of  shaping  human  powers  and  fitting 
them  for  social  service  is  "the  supreme  art,"  since  the 
community's  duty  to  education  "is  its  paramount 
moral  duty,"  and  since  the  teacher  is  engaged,  not 
in  training  individuals  alone,  but  in  consciously 
shaping  the  future,  in  training  the  teachers  who  are 
to  direct  the  forces  and  influences  which  play  upon 
the  young,  we  are  attempting  nothing  less  than  to 
perfect  the  best  of  artists.  We  need  time  and  infinite 
patience  for  that  great  task.  Ours  is  a  professional 
school.  We  have  no  desire  to  make  it  a  general 
culture  college,  but  we  do  want  to  be  permitted 
to  do  the  work  which  has  been  assigned  to  us  thor- 
oughly, carefully,  and  well,  and  we  do  want  to  be 
able  to  attract  to  this  school  its  share  of  the  earnest- 
minded,  capable,  and  ambitious  young  people  of  this 
community.  This  school  offers  a  four-year  course 
to  prepare  teachers  of  music  to  give  instruction  in 
that  subject  in  high  schools,  it  has  another  four-year 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  225 

course  to  prepare  teachers  of  drawing,  another  four- 
year  course  to  prepare  teachers  of  domestic  science, 
another  four-year  course  to  prepare  teachers  of 
physical  training,  another  for  teachers  of  mechanic 
arts,  and  still  another  for  teachers  of  commercial 
branches.  This  is  as  it  should  be,  for  the  time  is 
none  too  long  or  the  instruction  too  thorough  to 
accomplish  the  results  which  we  seek.  But,  side  by 
side  with  our  four-year  courses  to  train  teachers  to 
teach  single  subjects  in  high  schools,  we  have  a  two- 
year  general  professional  course  to  train  teachers 
to  teach  all  the  subjects  which  are  taught  in  ele- 
mentary schools.  The  thing  simply  can  not  be  done. 
The  disparity  is  far  too  great.  If  we  are  to  perform 
the  service  which  the  state  has  commissioned  us  to 
render,  we  must  have  more  time  in  which  to  per- 
form it. 

We  want  to  be  a  professional  school  worthy  of 
the  name  and  of  the  place  in  which  we  work.  By 
that  we  mean  that  we  want  to  teach  everything 
which  we  teach  from  the  standpoint  of  the  student 
either  teaching  it  again  or  being  directly  and  spe- 
cifically influenced  by  it  in  his  teaching.  If  we 
teach  sociology,  that  does  not  mean  that  we  are 
attempting  to  prepare  teachers  of  sociology,  but  only 
that  some  understanding  of  the  principles  of  sociology 
is  necessary  to  any  one  who  would  attempt  to  teach. 
If  we  teach  biology,  psychology,  the  principles  of 
education,  the  administration  of  schools,  the  history 
of  education,  and  kindred  subjects,  we  do  it  for  the 
same  reason.  Literature,  every  teacher  of  an  elemen- 
tary school  must  teach,  and  to  teach  it  should  know 

Q 


226  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

it  thoroughly  enough  to  make  others  comprehend 
its  purpose  and  get  instruction,  warning,  and  en- 
couragement from  it.  To  teach  the  history  of  the 
United  States  the  teacher  should  know  that  history 
deeply  enough  to  comprehend  how  it  began  in  "the 
greatest  discovery  ever  made  by  man"  twenty -five 
hundred  years  ago  at  Athens,  how  Roman  law  and 
order  transplanted  that  discovery  to  western  Europe, 
how  church  synods  and  church  administration  estab- 
lished it,  as  a  model  for  our  barbarian  forefathers  to 
follow,  in  the  days  of  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  and  how 
century  after  century  Englishmen  fought  for  those 
English  rights  which  were  accorded  them  most 
grudgingly  one  by  one,  until  at  last  they  fought 
for  them  once  more  as  Englishmen  at  Concord, 
Lexington,  and  Bunker  Hill. 

Much  is  required  of  us  to  whom  the  fostering  of 
the  children  of  the  nation  is  given.  We  must  more 
than  suspect  the  elements  of  our  trade.  We  must 
master  the  human  purpose  which  is  at  the  heart  of 
each  of  the  great  arts  which  are  so  invaluable  that 
they  must  be  begun  in  youth  and  continued  through- 
out life.  Our  students  must,  while  they  are  with  us, 
attain  a  high  degree  of  wise  discerning  skill,  not  in  a 
single  one  of  them,  but  in  them  all.  And  more  than 
that  —  far  more  than  that  —  they  must  become 
proficient  shapers  of  the  feelings,  interests,  and  actions 
of  men.  We  want  an  eight-hour  day,  a  six-day  week, 
and  a  twelve-month  school  year  in  which  to  do  the 
work  that  you  have  asked  us  to  do.  We  want  the 
privilege  here  in  this  great  city  of  organizing  normal 
school  classes  at  night  so  that  young  men  and  young 


OUR  UNDERTAKING  227 

women  of  aspiration  who  must  labor  in  the  daytime 
for  a  livelihood  shall  have  opened  to  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  fit  themselves  for  the  teacher's  calling  by 
harder  effort  than  their  more  fortunate  fellows  put 
forth.  We  want  to  offer  rich  and  varied  courses  of 
instruction  bearing  upon  their  work  to  the  seven 
thousand  five  hundred  teachers  now  in  service  in 
our  schools.  We  want  the  privilege  of  training 
teachers  more  thoroughly  for  the  elementary  schools 
than  you  now  allow  us  to  train  them.  We  want  to 
extend  our  diploma  course  from  two  years  to  three 
years.  We  of  this  school  are  unanimous  in  that. 
And  after  our  students  have  spent  three  years  in 
addition  to  the  four  years  of  their  high-school  course 
in  earning  that  license  to  teach,  and  have  approved 
themselves  by  one  or  two  years  of  teaching  in  the 
schools,  we  want  to  open  a  fourth  year  of  professional 
study  to  them,  and  at  its  close  we  want  to  reward 
their  effort  with  a  professional  degree. 

We  ask  the  privilege  of  building  up  as  good  a 
teaching  service  in  this  dear  land  as  now  exists  in 
other  regions.  There  are  twenty-four  state  teachers' 
colleges  in  other  parts  of  our  country.  California 
has  none  as  yet.  We  have  no  desire  to  enter  into 
rivalry  with  its  splendid  university  or  with  its 
score  of  colleges  which  do  their  work  so  well.  We 
say  to  them :  We  will  not  harm  your  undertakings, 
we  will  help  them,  for  the  more  vigorously  education 
is  fostered  in  a  growing  country,  the  more  the  country 
grows. 

I  began  by  opposing  to  the  statement  of  Nietzsche, 
"the  education  of  the  masses  can  not  be  our  aim,"  the 


228  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

counterstatement  that  the  education  of  the  masses  is 
our  aim.  I  want  to  close  by  opposing  to  his  other 
prophecy,  "The  time  will  come  when  men  will 
think  of  nothing  but  education,"  the  declaration  of 
Professor  Franklin,  "The  time  has  come  when  men 
must  think  of  nothing  but  education." 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US  ABOUT 
EDUCATION 

ORGANIZING  has  been  the  order  of  the  day  every- 
where through  this  land  ever  since  April  the  second, 
1917.  We  organize  to  produce  food  and  to  save  the 
food  which  has  been  produced.  We  organize  to 
raise  billions  for  the  defense  of  our  homes.  We 
organize  to  create  a  citizen  army  and  to  rush  it  to 
Europe.  The  railroads  were  not  equal  to  their 
task  so  long  as  they  pursued  each  its  own  way. 
To  make  them  more  efficient,  the  government  welds 
them  into  a  single  organization.  Ships  must  be 
had,  millions  of  tons  of  ships,  and  to  get  them  the 
Government  creates  a  National  Shipping  Board  with 
large  powers  of  coercion  and  constraint.  The 
manufacture  of  aeroplanes  is  directed  by  a  single 
head.  The  making  of  guns  and  munitions  is  a 
coordinated  undertaking.  Prodigies  of  combined 
strength  result,  such  as  the  world  never  knew  before. 
We  live  in  an  era  of  mass  effort.  The  bundle  of 
sticks  is  unbreakable  now  that  they  are  tied  to- 
gether. We  dare  not  go  our  several  ways  if  we  are 
to  lift  the  load  which  we  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  shouldered.  That  load  is  even  heavier 
than  we  think.  It  calls  for  systematic  effort  of 
more  kinds  than  we  have  yet  made.  There  is  a 
coordination  of  national  strength  by  which  Germany 

229 


230  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

through  long  years  prepared  herself  for  the  dom- 
ination of  the  world  and  that,  so  thoroughly,  that 
her  plan  almost  succeeded.  She  mustered  her 
schools. 

A  little  of  that  story  is  to  be  found  in  a  volume 
which  circulated  freely  before  we  entered  the  war. 
It  does  not  circulate  at  all  now,  for  it  is  a  propagandist 
book  devoted  to  making  the  worse  appear  the  better 
cause.  Its  title  is  "  Modern  Germany."  It  is  by  "va- 
rious German  writers, "  most  of  them  professors  in 
German  universities.  Professor  Ernest  Troeltsch 
of  Berlin,  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  world,  con- 
tributes a  chapter,  on  the  spirit  of  German  Kultur,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  takes  pains  to  say  that  "in 
Germany  the  school  organization  parallels  that  of 
the  army;  the  public  school  corresponds  to  the 
popular  army.  The  latter,  as  well  as  the  former,  was 
called  into  being  during  the  first  great  rise  of  the 
coming  German  state  in  opposition  to  Napoleon. 
When  Fichte,  while  the  country  was  groaning  under 
the  Napoleonic  yoke,  considered  the  ways  and  means 
of  resurrecting  the  German  State,  he  advised  the 
infusion  of  German  culture  into  the  mass  of  the 
people,  through  the  creation  of  national  primary 
schools  along  the  lines  laid  down  by  Pestalozzi, 
which  were  to  educate  the  children  according  to 
well-established  methods,  to  mental  independence, 
moral  self-control  and  intellectual  self-development. 
This  program  was  actually  adopted  by  the  different 
German  states,  and  developed  during  the  last 
century  into  a  comprehensive  school  system  of 
elementary,  secondary,  and  university  education. 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      231 

This  has  become  the  real  formative  factor  of  the 
German  spirit." 

Those  who  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  read 
Professor  Alexander's  enlightening  volume,  "The 
Prussian  Elementary  Schools,"  know  that  fostering 
mental  independence,  moral  self-control,  and  in- 
tellectual self-development  was  not  the  purpose  of  the 
German  elementary  schools.  While  it  is  true  that 
they  have  been  "the  real  formative  factor  of  the 
German  spirit,"  their  effort  has  been  to  form  that 
spirit  to  dependence,  obedience,  and  intellectual 
slavery.  "  The  whole  scheme  of  Prussian  elementary 
education,"  says  Professor  Alexander,  "is  shaped 
with  the  express  purpose  of  making  ninety-five  out 
of  every  hundred  citizens  subservient  to  the  ruling 
house  and  to  the  state.  .  .  ."  "The  Prussian  ele- 
mentary school  is  the  best  in  the  world  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  upper  classes  of  Germany. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  lower  classes,  it  is  the 
worst  system,  for  it  takes  from  them  all  hope  of 
improving  their  condition  in  life.  The  Prussian 
method  of  education  has  produced  a  people  that 
moves  as  one  man  at  the  command  of  its  King.  The 
result  is  exactly  the  same  as  if  one  would  take  an 
infant  and  teach  him  only  one  word  to  be  used  in 
response  to  all  situations  —  in  Germany  that  word 
is  Fatherland." 

The  people's  school  is  the  agency  through  which 
that  enslaving  has  taken  place.  The  child  enters  it 
when  he  is  six  years  of  age.  It  is  a  free  school,  while 
the  gymnasium  and  the  university  are  not.  The 
children  of  the  upper  class  and  of  the  ambitious 


232  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

middle  class  do  not  go  to  the  volksschule.  They 
enter  a  progymnasium.  The  child  in  the  volksschule 
may  leave  it  at  the  age  of  nine  and  enter  a  gymnasium 
class;  if  he  does  so,  he  can  begin  the  study  of  the 
foreign  languages  which  the  Germans  have  erected 
into  a  wall  to  keep  all  but  the  students  who  are 
fortunate  enough  to  be  able  to  enter  a  gymnasium, 
a  realschule,  or  a  realgymnasium,  out  of  contact 
with  any  form  of  higher  instruction.  They  have  not 
set  up  an  educational  ladder  from  the  elementary 
school  to  the  university.  They  have,  instead,  seen 
to  it  that  the  elementary  school  leads  away  from  the 
university  and  prepares  only  for  what  their  highly 
stratified  caste  system  regards  as  inferior  forms  of 
service.  It  is  a  sinister  device  which  they  have 
invented  to  close  the  gateway  to  opportunity  upon 
the  child  when  he  is  only  nine  years  of  age ;  and  it  is 
very  nearly  as  effective  in  keeping  the  bulk  of  the 
people  in  mental  vassalage  as  a  system  of  slavery 
would  be.  Once  in  a  while  a  child  leaves  the 
volksschule  and  is  rerouted  in  his  education,  but  that 
happens  so  rarely  as  to  be  only  the  exception  which 
calls  attention  to  the  rigor  of  the  rule. 

There  are  textbooks  in  the  volksschule,  but  they 
are  a  subordinate  feature  of  its  life.  Its  instruction 
is  given  by  the  teacher  who  lectures  or  talks  to  the 
children  and  then  calls  them  up,  one  after  the  other, 
to  repeat  what  he  has  said  to  them.  In  a  military 
nation  there  is  a  great  advantage  in  this  method, 
but  it  is  not  the  advantage  which  some  of  our 
American  educators  thought  they  saw  in  it  a  few 
years  ago  when  they  contrasted  our  method  of 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      233 

instruction  with  it  in  the  saying  that  "the  German 
teacher  teaches,  the  American  teacher  hears  lessons." 
The  German  teacher  uses  his  method  of  the  au- 
thoritative word  in  order  to  prepare  his  pupils  for 
the  commands  of  the  drill  sergeant,  the  lieutenant, 
and  the  captain.  If  they  are  habituated  from  in- 
fancy to  the  authority  of  the  spoken  word  over  every 
other  authority,  they  will  believe  what  is  told  them 
by  their  officers  and  by  their  makers  of  opinion,  and 
books  and  newspapers  will  have  little  influence  upon 
them,  and  that  is  the  way  the  government  wishes 
them  brought  up.  They  must  depend  on  the  man 
who  is  set  over  them.  The  teacher  is  the  textbook,  a 
"speaking  textbook,"  as  Professor  Alexander  puts 
it.  Consequently  inarticulate  books  do  not  mean 
the  same  to  them  as  they  do  to  American  children. 
Some  of  us,  in  our  ignorance,  were  foolish  enough  to 
think  that  if  President  Wilson's  splendid  statements 
of  the  purpose  of  the  United  States  in  taking  up  arms 
could  be  dropped  in  Germany  by  aeroplanes,  the 
German  people  would  read  them  and  be  moved  to 
give  attention  to  his  words.  Nothing  could  be  more 
unlikely.  They  give  attention  to  the  voice  of  their 
superiors,  not  to  what  they  read  in  print,  for  so  they 
have  been  habituated  from  their  earliest  years. 
Prince  Lichnowsky's  remarkable  disclosure  that 
Germany  alone  was  responsible  for  starting  the  war 
was  widely  printed  throughout  the  empire.  It  had, 
we  are  told,  practically  no  effect. 

In  a  German  school  everything  is  told  them  by  the 
teacher  and  memorized  by  the  pupils.  They  ask  no 
questions.  "I  had  visited  over  three  hundred 


234  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

classes  in  the  volksschulen  in  Prussia  before  I  heard 
a  question  from  a  pupil  or  a  request  for  an  explanation 
of  a  question  which  had  occurred  to  him,"  says 
Professor  Alexander.  What  is  it  that  is  told  them 
over  and  over  again  until  they  can  believe  nothing 
else  because  they  have  never  heard  anything  else? 
In  the  classes  in  religion,  that  God,  King,  and  country 
are  equally  sacred,  and  that  the  King  must  be  obeyed 
no  less  reverently  than  God  himself,  for  the  King  is 
the  representative  of  God  and  has  been  appointed 
by  God  to  rule  his  faithful  people.  In  the  history 
classes  they  listen  to  a  fiery  glorification  of  the  great 
deeds  of  the  puissant  fatherland  and  by  it  are  wrought 
to  "a  German  attitude  of  mind."  In  literature, 
too,^the  pounding  in  of  patriotism  goes  on  and 
Deutschland,  Deutschland  tiber  alles,  in  fact,  as 
well  as  in  phrase,  becomes  the  living  purpose  of  the 
nation.  They  have  all,  with  one  accord,  been 
brought  up  to  contemplate  their  own  greatness  so 
exclusively  that  they  believe  themselves  a  peculiar 
people  commissioned  to  rule  over  mankind. 

The  question  which  has  shaped  itself  in  the  mind 
of  nearly  every  man  and  woman  alive  outside  of 
Germany —  How  did  the  hochgeboren  Germans  bring 
it  to  pass  that  the  masses  of  their  countrymen,  in  the 
unholiest  of  causes,  fed  themselves  willingly,  yes, 
even  gladly,  to  the  guns  ?  —  is  answered  :  by  their 
educational  system.  With  the  aid  of  the  schools 
the  leaders  had  but  to  will  the  kind  of  morality 
they  wanted.  They  had  but  to  say  "evil  be  thou 
our  good"  to  accomplish  in  the  people  the  transfor- 
mation they  desired. 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      235 

In  the  light  of  such  a  demonstration  of  the  nearly 
limitless  power  of  education  as  Germany  has  afforded, 
does  our  duty  to  education  remain  the  same  as 
before  the  war  ?  Or,  do  we  not  face  a  new  revelation 
of  the  power  of  this  agency  in  human  life?  Ger- 
many, her  protagonists  tell  us,  rests  upon  two 
corner  stones  —  the  people's  army  and  the  people's 
schools.  After  this  colossal  demonstration  no  coun- 
try henceforth  can  regard  these  instruments  of 
national  well-being,  or  of  national  self-destruction, 
with  indifference.  They  are  the  means,  and  the 
chief  means,  to  the  kind  of  existence  which  any 
nation  may  aim  to  have.  Its  aim,  let  us  hope,  will 
be  different  from  that  of  Germany,  but  its  means 
will  remain  the  same. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  people  of 
the  United  States  are  bethinking  themselves  about 
schools  and  what  is  taught  in  them.  They  have 
been  finding  out  what  schools  should  mean  and  at 
the  same  time  they  have  been  finding  out  that  they 
have  not  meant  in  the  past  what  they  should  mean 
and  must  mean  now.  "The  war  crisis  has  disclosed 
to  the  nation,  as  no  other  event  has,  the  strength 
and  worth  of  the  American  school  system  .  .  .  the 
emergencies  and  demands  of  war  have  laid  bare 
certain  weaknesses  and  shortcomings  in  the  scope 
and  character  of  public  education  that  now  call  for 
readjustment  and  reorganization."  That  is  the 
reason  for  the  vigorous  effort  which  is  being  made  to 
revitalize  the  National  Education  Association  and 
that  is  the  reason  for  its  national  campaign  to  con- 
vince the  American  people  that  the  government  of 


236  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

the  United  States  must  share  with  the  states  the 
responsibility  of  providing  the  funds,  the  adminis- 
trative oversight,  and  the  supervision  necessary  to 
Americanize  our  entire  population,  to  bring  some- 
thing like  equal  educational  opportunity  to  the 
children  of  the  several  states,  and  to  conserve  and 
foster  our  national  ideals  with  such  thorough- 
going devotion  that  the  unity  and  conscious  pur- 
poses of  this  people  may  not  fail. 

American  teachers  look  with  envy,  not  unmixed 
with  self-condemnation,  to  the  federated  effort  of 
their  colleagues  in  France  and  the  triumphal 
evidences  of  their  united  labors  for  the  children  of 
the  Republic  across  the  sea.  They  have  set  them- 
selves the  task  of  making  their  National  Association 
as  representative  and  as  powerful  a  body  as  the 
Association  of  French  Teachers. 

They  have  called  upon  Congress  to  enact  legis- 
lation to  create  a  Department  of  Education  with  a 
Secretary  of  Education  at  its  head,  and  to  appro- 
priate $100,000,000  annually  for  Federal  cooperation 
with  the  states  in  the  encouragement  and  support 
of  education.  The  specific  duty  of  that  department 
will  be  to  cooperate  with  the  states  in  the  abolition  of 
illiteracy,  three-fortieths  of  the  sum  annually  appro- 
priated to  be  used  for  that  purpose;  to  codperate 
with  the  states  in  the  Americanization  of  immigrants ; 
three-fortieths  of  the  sum  annually  appropriated  to 
be  used  "to  teach  immigrants,  ten  years  of  age  and 
over,  the  English  language  and  the  duties  of  citizen- 
ship, and  to  develop  among  them  an  appreciation 
of  and  respect  for  the  civic  and  social  institutions 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      237 

of  the  United  States."  It  is  proposed  to  apportion 
these  sums  to  the  states  in  the  proportions  which 
their  illiterate  and  their  foreign-born  populations 
bear  to  the  total  illiterate  and  the  total  foreign-born 
population  of  the  United  States.  Five-tenths  of  the 
sum  annually  appropriated  is  to  be  devoted  to 
improving  the  public  schools,  below  college  grade,  by 
extending  school  terms,  now  too  brief  for  effective 
education,  and  stimulating  state  and  local  interest 
in  improving,  through  better  instruction,  better 
grading,  and  consolidation,  the  work  of  the  rural 
schools.  Two-tenths  of  the  annual  appropriation 
is  to  be  used  in  cooperating  with  the  states  in  the 
promotion  of  physical  education ;  three-twentieths  of 
the  appropriation  is  to  be  used  "to  encourage  a  more 
nearly  universal  preparation  of  prospective  teachers." 
This  in  outline  is  the  American  counterpart  of  the 
English  Education  Bill.  Like  that  famous  measure 
recently  enacted  into  law  by  Parliament,  it  is  intended 
to  cure  some  of  the  glaring  weaknesses  which  the  war 
has  revealed  in  our  educational  system. 

What  were  those  weaknesses?  Twenty -nine  per 
cent  of  the  young  men  examined  in  the  first  draft 
were  found  to  be  physically  unfit  for  military  service. 
Seven  hundred  thousand  men,  between  twenty-one 
and  thirty-one  years  of  age,  could  not  read  or  write 
any  language  and  could  not  speak  English.  It  is 
estimated  that  nearly  5,000,000  of  our  population 
are  in  that  condition.  Our  knowledge  of  agriculture 
was  found  to  be  quite  unequal  to  the  demand  put 
upon  it  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Knowledge  of 
how  to  select  and  how  to  prepare  food  was  another 


238  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

national  deficiency.  When  our  young  men  were 
assembled  in  the  cantonments  they  had  to  be  taught 
the  songs  of  our  country,  for  it  was  found  that  they 
did  not  know  them.  The  speakers  of  the  National 
Security  League,  who  went  from  camp  to  camp  to 
address  them,  report  that  in  the  early  days  they 
met  a  dead  wall  of  lack  of  comprehension  of  the 
causes  of  the  war.  Here  were  the  young  men  of  the 
nation  eager  and  anxious  to  undertake  the  task  to 
which  the  government  had  called  them,  but  quite 
unable,  without  special  instruction,  to  understand 
what  it  was  all  about.  Our  knowledge  of  our  own 
history  and  of  the  geography  of  the  world  was  grossly 
inadequate.  These  are  some  of  the  proofs  of  a  most 
unsatisfactory  condition  of  education  among  us.  But 
the  most  striking  proof  of  all  is  the  fact  that  it  took  our 
people  nearly  three  years  to  discover  that  their  security 
was  menaced,  that  their  liberties  were  in  danger.  The 
cry  "Wake  up,  America!"  which  came  across  the 
seas  fell  upon  too  many  unheeding  ears.  This 
time  we  have  escaped  destruction,  thanks  to  the 
vigilance  and  the  indomitable  will  of  our  allies; 
but  it  is  a  low  order  of  intelligence  which  can  not  dis- 
cern danger  before  destruction  is  upon  it,  and  one 
may  well  question  whether  a  nation  which  is  not  more 
keenly  self-protective  than  we  were  during  the  first 
two  and  a  half  years  of  the  war  is  fitted  to  survive. 

One  of  the  compelling  lessons  we  have  been  taught 
is  that  children  cannot  safely  discontinue  their 
studies  at  the  early  age  of  fourteen  years.  Many,  most 
of  them,  do  and  have  done  so  in  the  past,  but  that  only 
proves  that  we  must  not  be  so  careless  of  their  wel- 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US     239 

fare  and  the  nation's  welfare  in  the  future.  It  is 
self-evident  that  young  people  can  not  attain  sufficient 
knowledge  or  sufficient  maturity  of  mental  habits 
by  the  age  of  fourteen  to  last  them  through  life.  If 
their  notions  of  what  our  country  is  for,  of  our  own 
duty  to  it ;  of  our  neighbors  —  the  other  countries 
of  this  world ;  —  if  their  skill  with  which  they  make 
their  contribution  to  the  good  of  the  whole;  and 
their  day-by-day  choosings  which  decide  what  the 
nation  shall  undertake  and  be,  are  of  any  concern 
at  all,  they  merit  a  more  serious  training  than  the 
present  brief  period  of  compulsory  instruction  pro- 
vides. A  world  indifferent  to  its  to-morrow  paid  but 
slight  attention  to  the  shaping  of  its  future.  That 
course  led  to  disaster.  It  is  now  engaged  in  piecing 
together  such  elements  of  strength  as  still  remain  in 
the  effort  to  build  a  more  intelligent  and  enduring 
life  than  it  has  yet  had.  The  British  nation  found 
itself  compelled,  in  the  midst  of  war,  to  lay  a  securer 
foundation  for  its  national  well-being  in  a  re- 
organized educational  system  which  provides  for 
continuous  instruction  of  the  youth  of  the  land  up  to 
the  age  of  eighteen  years.  In  France  a  similar  re- 
organization of  foundational  instruction  is  proposed. 
The  needs  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
not  less  demanding.  Never  before  has  education 
been  valued  as  it  is  to-day.  Never  have  the  schools 
been  regarded  with  such  solicitude  by  every  class 
and  kind  of  shaper  of  public  opinion.  Democracy 
is  engaged  in  its  final  struggle  with  institutional  autoc- 
racy. It  is  putting  its  age-long  enemy  under  its 
feet.  It  is  making  the  world  safe  for  its  own  kind  of 


240  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

life.  But  what  will  make  democracy  safe  for  the 
world  ?  Nothing  but  education.  The  pious  wish  for 
liberty  will  not  bring  it.  The  heartfelt  prayer  of 
hundreds  of  millions  of  souls  for  peace  they  must 
themselves  answer.  With  the  defeat  and  the  utter 
overthrow  of  the  Germans,  the  new  Crusade  has  but 
begun.  The  schools  must  take  up  the  struggle  when 
the  cannons  cease.  It  is  prophetic  of  the  new  order 
that  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  as  soon  as  their  city 
had  been  recovered,  began  the  erection  of  a  Jewish 
university. 

Symbolic  of  the  new  demand  which  the  world 
undertaking  is  making  upon  education  was  that 
remarkable  series  of  patriotic  demonstrations  which 
the  Committee  on  Education  of  the  War  Department 
ordered  some  five  hundred  and  fifty  colleges  and 
schools  to  hold  at  one  and  the  same  moment  through- 
out the  entire  United  States  on  the  morning  of 
October  first.  At  12  o'clock  in  the  Atlantic  Coast 
states,  11  o'clock  in  the  central  states,  10  o'clock  in 
the  mountain  states,  and  9  o'clock  in  the  Pacific 
Coast  states,  the  members  of  the  Students'  Army 
Training  Corps  were,  in  every  college  of  the  land, 
assembled  around  the  flagpole  to  raise  the  flag  and, 
in  nation-wide  unison,  no  less  real  because  one  group 
did  not  hear  the  voice  of  its  neighbor,  to  pledge  alle- 
giance to  it.  "This  day  .  .  .  will  be  remembered 
in  American  history,"  says  the  War  Department  in 
its  general  orders  for  the  observance  of  that  day.  I 
know  of  no  event  which  has  ever  taken  place  in 
our  history  of  such  significance  that  the  government 
felt  called  upon  to  synchronize  it  and  make  it  a 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      241 

simultaneous  action  from  one  end  of  the  nation  to  the 
other.  On  that  occasion  the  national  government 
felt  such  deep  dependence  upon  the  schools  that  it 
made  the  inception  of  their  work  a  ceremony  of 
such  moment  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
addressed  a  special  message  to  them.  "The  step 
you  have  taken,"  he  said  to  the  members  of  the 
Students'  Army  Training  Corps,  "is  a  most  signifi- 
cant one.  By  it  you  have  ceased  to  be  merely 
individuals,  each  seeking  to  perfect  himself  to  win 
his  own  place  in  the  world,  and  have  become  com- 
rades in  the  common  cause  of  making  the  world  a 
better  place  to  live  in.  You  have  joined  yourselves 
with  the  entire  manhood  of  the  country  and  pledged 
as  did  your  forefathers,  your  lives,  your  fortunes 
and  your  sacred  honor  to  the  freedom  of  humanity. 
The  enterprise  upon  which  you  have  embarked  is  a 
hazardous  and  difficult  one.  This  is  not  a  war  of 
words ;  this  is  not  a  scholastic  struggle.  It  is  a  war 
of  ideals,  yet  fought  with  all  the  devices  of  science 
and  with  the  power  of  machines.  To  succeed  you 
must  not  only  be  inspired  by  the  ideals  for  which 
this  country  stands,  but  you  must  also  be  masters  of 
the  technique  with  which  the  battle  is  fought.  You 
must  not  only  be  thrilled  with  zeal  for  the  common 
welfare,  but  you  must  also  be  masters  of  the  weapons 
of  to-day.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  issue.  The 
spirit  that  is  revealed  and  the  manner  in  which 
America  has  responded  to  the  call  is  indomitable. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  you,  too,  will  use  your  utmost 
strength  to  maintain  that  spirit  and  to  carry  it  for- 
ward to  final  victory  that  will  certainly  be  ours." 


242  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Substitute  the  word  tools  for  weapons  and  this 
statement  of  the  President  becomes  a  perfect  outline 
of  the  aim  of  education  in  the  years  which  are  to 
come  after  the  war  is  ended. 

The  Students'  Army  Training  Corps  was  created 
by  express  direction  of  the  President  under  the 
authority  of  the  Act  of  Congress  which  authorized 
him  to  "increase  temporarily  the  military  establish- 
ment of  the  United  States."  It  was  intended  to  hasten 
the  mobilization  and  training  of  the  new  armies  by 
bringing  men  into  training  before  their  numbers 
would  normally  be  reached  by  the  draft  boards  and 
by  providing  an  opportunity  to  carefully  rate  and 
test  the  fitness  of  the  individual  members  of  the 
corps  for  assignment  to  central  officers'  training 
schools  or  non-commissioned  officers'  training  camps 
or  for  further  technical  training.  The  instruction  was 
to  be  specific  and  highly  intensive.  Its  intent  was  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  war  program  which  are  imme- 
diate and  pressing.  The  course  of  study,  as  outlined 
by  the  War  Department,  called  for  eleven  hours  per 
week  of  practical  and  theoretical  military  instruction 
and  physical  training,  and  forty-two  hours  per  week 
of  class  work  and  supervised  study  of  allied  subjects, 
the  allied  subjects  to  be  selected  from  the  following 
list :  English,  French,  German,  Mathematics,  Phys- 
ics, Chemistry,  Biology,  Geology,  Geography,  Topog- 
raphy and  Map-making,  Meteorology,  Astronomy, 
Hygiene,  Sanitation,  Descriptive  Geometry, 
Mechanical  and  Freehand  Drawing,  Surveying, 
Economics,  Accounting,  International  Law,  Military 
Law,  Government,  and  Psychology.  One  subject, 


WHAT  THE  WAR  IS  TEACHING  US      243 

but  not  more  than  one  subject,  could  be  chosen  out- 
side this  list.  College  presidents  were  instructed  to 
make  it  clear  to  their  students  that  success  in  winning 
a  commission  depended  upon  their  demonstrated 
ability  and  the  needs  of  the  service. 

The  War  Department  announced  its  intention  to 
fill  the  places  of  students  who  were  withdrawn  for 
assignment  to  other  organizations  with  recruits 
selected  for  ability  and  maturity  by  army  rating 
methods  and  army  examining  boards,  without  ex- 
plicit reference  to  the  usual  college  entrance  examina- 
tions and  ordinary  academic  rating  systems. 

Here  was  a  colossal  nation-wide  educational  experi- 
ment whose  results  are  certain  to  permanently  affect 
established  practices  in  most  of  the  colleges  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  in  addressing  the 
assembled  Students'  Army  Training  Corps  at  Colum- 
bia University,  said  to  them :  "A  new  era  begins  in 
which  all  the  learning  of  America  is  now  laid  upon 
the  altar  of  service.  .  .  .  No  one  can  measure,  no 
one  can  conceive  what  it  will  mean  in  future  years 
that  you  and  the  150,000  other  college  and  university 
students  and  all  the  learned  faculty  and  all  the  alumni 
and  all  the  Americans  whose  hearts  are  full  of  pride 
and  hope  in  American  education  unite  in  concentrat- 
ing military  power  and  capacity  and  promise  for  the 
future  in  one  pledge  of  sacred  and  unforgetable 
service  to  our  country."  The  experiment  did  not 
come  to  fruition.  The  armistice  was  signed  before 
it  was  well  begun,  but  the  change  it  introduced  into 
American  higher  education  was  significant  and  not 
without  its  permanent  results. 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL  PAUL  AZAN,  in  his  monu- 
mental volume,  "The  Warfare  of  To-day,"  makes 
learning  how  the  first  step  in  the  waging  of  war.  The 
whole  nation  must  be  put  to  school.  The  infantry- 
men, the  artillerymen,  the  aviators,  the  engineers,  the 
cavalrymen,  the  medical  arm,  the  quartermaster's 
corps,  the  railwaymen,  the  motor  transport  service, 
the  intelligence  department,  the  topographic  branch, 
the  ammunition  makers,  the  ordnance  makers,  the 
shipbuilders,  the  maritime  transport  men,  the 
convoy,  the  farmers,  the  merchants,  the  bankers, 
the  manufacturers,  in  short,  the  entire  population, 
must  be  taught,  individual  by  individual,  to  take 
its  place  in  the  line  or  behind  the  line  and  perform  its 
work  of  saving,  consuming  and  producing  the  goods 
which  are  needed,  be  they  merely  self-denial,  collab- 
orating confidence,  provision  for  the  soldiers' 
dependents,  assistance  in  conscripting  and  preparing 
the  forces,  shoes,  clothing,  arms,  all  the  multifarious 
requirements,  not  of  an  army,  but  of  a  nation  in  arms. 
Two  great  principles,  he  believes,  dominate  the 
process  of  education  thus  set  afoot:  specialization 
and  coordination.  All  must  be  trained;  his  dis- 
cussion concerns  only  the  combatants. 

"The  basis  of  organization  for  training  rests  upon 
certain  extremely  simple  principles,  so  simple  in 

244 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    245 

fact  that  they  seem  almost  self-evident.  Yet,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  have  been  misunderstood  in  the 
past  and  still  are  misunderstood  to-day.  They  are 
the  following: 

1.  No  army  can  be  trained  without  teachers. 

2.  The  teachers  must  be  trained  before  the  troops 
can  be. 

3.  To  train  these  teachers  there  must  be  schools 
for  officers  of  all  arms. 

4.  To  organize  these  schools  it  is  necessary  to 
bring   together   the  officers   best   qualified   to  give 
instruction. 

'  .  .  .  .  No  army  can  be  trained  without  teachers. 
This  principle  is  evident;  why  is  it  so  often  mis- 
understood? The  people  who  misunderstand  it  are 
in  error  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  'training/ 
Training,  to  their  minds,  means  drill  in  bodily  move- 
ments and  attitudes,  marches  and  alignments, 
rifle  practice  and  bayonet  exercises,  etc.  A  knowl- 
edge of  these  things  is  supposed  to  be  enough  to 
make  a  trained  soldier.  This  mistake  has  been  made 
in  every  army  by  those  who  believed  that  the 
military  profession  consisted  in  the  accomplishment 
of  certain  rites,  and  not  in  the  apprenticeship  for 
war.  Teachers  whose  knowledge  did  not  extend 
beyond  these  rites  could  teach  nothing  more  to  the 
officers  and  soldiers  confined  to  their  care;  such 
teachers  are  quite  incapable  of  teaching  modern 
warfare.  This  is  the  idea  which  so  many  of  my 
friends  have  misunderstood  when  they  have  asked 
me:  'How  long  a  time  do  you  think  is  needful  to 
train  an  officer?'  I  have  invariably  replied:  'A 


246  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

few  months  if  he  is  intelligent  and  put  under  the 
care  of  a  competent  teacher ;  a  year,  eighteen  months, 
or  two  years  if  his  teacher  is  mediocre ;  and,  hi  the 
latter  case,  all  that  he  will  accomplish  will  be  to  lead 
his  men  to  be  slaughtered."  l 

Not  very  long  ago  the  whole  world  believed  that 
a  soldier  could  not  be  trained  in  less  than  two,  or 
perhaps  even  three,  years ;  at  least,  that  he  could  not 
be  trained  in  a  shorter  time  to  meet  and  withstand 
the  onslaught  of  a  thoroughly  disciplined  army  such 
as  the  German  troops  were.  America  has  been 
giving  herself  a  new  notion  of  her  own  resourcefulness 
and  ability  in  the  last  eighteen  months,  and  at  the 
same  time  she  has  been  giving  herself  a  new  notion 
of  training.  The  ritualistic  conception  of  warfare, 
she  has  discarded,  and  the  ritualistic  conception  of 
training  for  warfare;  and  with  that  goes,  as  it  is 
bound  to  go,  the  ritualistic  conception  of  education 
of  all  sorts.  Never  before  have  the  youth  of  the 
land  had  a  chance  to  show  what  they  could  do  under 
favorable  conditions.  Never  before  have  they  been 
able  to  break  away  from  routinary  prescriptions  of 
content,  hours,  methods,  and  subject  matter.  Our 
universities  and  colleges,  with  their  traditions  of 
learning  made  in  Germany  and  many  of  their  pro- 
fessors trained  there,  set  up  before  them  so  many 
blind  absolutes  demanding  devotion  that  it  was  not 
until  Germany  herself  forced  us  to  it  that  we  had  the 
temerity  to  break  away  from  the  intellectual  ritualism 
which  she  had  spun.  Absolutism  in  learning  is  no 
more  defensible  than  absolutism  in  government. 

1  Azan :   "  The  Warfare  of  To-day,"  pp.  53-54,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    247 

They  grew  up  together  —  the  soldier  for  his  Kaiser, 
the  citizen  for  his  state,  the  musician  for  his  art, 
the  scholar  for  his  science,  all  perverted  humans 
who  insist  upon  reversing  the  real  relations  of  life 
and  doing  their  utmost  to  turn  bread  into  a  stone. 
If  we  had  been  really  critical,  we  would  not  have 
needed  the  war  to  teach  us  that  German  in- 
tellectualism,  with  its  adorations  and  its  scholastic 
rites,  is  as  little  like  the  genuine  training  which 
democratic  intelligence  demands  as  the  formal  but 
king-glorifying  labor  of  the  Alexandrians  was  like 
the  genuine  search  for  knowledge  of  the  democratic 
Athenians.  Just  as  German  lower  education  had 
Kaiserism  for  its  object,  so  German  higher  education 
had  the  ornamentation  of  the  empire,  rather  than 
service  to  the  citizens,  for  its  aim.  It  studied  the 
classics,  but  not  for  the  sake  of  their  humanity ;  it 
studied  psychology,  but  only  to  forget  the  imponder- 
ables, the  consideration  of  which  is  the  chief  reason 
for  studying  psychology;  it  studied  religion  only 
as  a  series  of  ignoble  and  regrettable  human  failings 
and  then  proceeded  to  make  a  religion  of  its  own  more 
cruel  and  inhuman  than  any  which  its  study  had 
unearthed.  It  studied  ethics  only  to  discover  that 
morality  is  the  will  of  the  stronger.  It  studied  inter- 
national law  only  to  put  itself  outside  the  pale  of 
international  law.  History  to  it  meant  the 
glorification  of  the  deeds  of  the  German  nation; 
philosophy,  the  identification  of  the  absolute  with 
the  German  spirit.  The  conclusion  of  all  its  in- 
struction is  that  the  state  is  God  on  earth.  Of  co- 
ordination of  effort,  there  was  enough  there  and  to 


248  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

spare.  Every  science  contributed  its  share  to  the 
demonstration  of  the  ineffable,  all-glorious  empire. 
All  roads  led  to  that  result,  for  of  specialization,  of 
patient  consulting  of  facts  and  following  where 
they  led,  there  was  very  little.  Of  training  for  war, 
there  was  more  than  enough;  but  of  training  for 
humanity,  there  was  none,  though  they  did  much 
that  to  an  uncritical  world  passed  for  that.  Such 
results  as  were  attained  were  not  possible  save  to  a 
learning  that  has  become  a  rite. 

Germany's  example  has  become  a  warning  to  the 
world.  The  classics  have  other  uses  to  serve  than 
those  of  German  philologie.  Psychology  is  something 
more  than  a  minute  tabulation  of  the  infinitely  com- 
plex traits  of  human  beings;  religion  is  something 
other  than  a  curious  chapter  in  the  natural  history 
of  man;  duty  or  justice  is  not  "a  lofty  Presence 
transcending  all  considerations  of  expediency."  In- 
ternational law  is  more  than  a  body  of  historic  docu- 
ments ;  history  is  not  a  record  of  chauvinistic  triumphs, 
while  philosophy  is  something  other  than  the  march  of 
God  to  Prussia.  An  academic  system  that  allowed  such 
attitudes  to  be  engendered,  such  convictions  to  be 
formed  as  those  which  have  characterized  the  in- 
tellectuals of  Germany  in  the  last  half  dozen  years 
did  not  consult,  employ,  or  comprehend  the  wisdom 
of  the  ages  or  the  experience  of  mankind.  German 
higher  education,  therefore,  has  to  be  explained. 
That  devotion  to  learning  could  have  led  to  such 
a  result  is  unthinkable.  The  result  is  there.  It 
could  not  have  been  anything  but  a  camouflage  of 
learning  which  produced  it,  and  if  that  method  of 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    249 

studying  is  a  camouflage  of  sinister  import,  it  must 
be  abandoned  and  a  more  productive  method  must 
take  its  place.  Never  again  can  the  world  admit 
that  education  is  occupation  with  the  sciences  after 
the  German  fashion.  Never  again  can  it  put  its 
trust  in  a  blind  ritualism  of  lectures,  readings,  and 
examinations,  upon  preordained  subjects  which  are 
to  be  approached  without  consideration  of  con- 
sequences. The  German  attitude  toward  learning 
and  the  method  which  it  employed  are  wrong. 
There  is  another  method,  the  product  of  a  wholly 
different  attitude. 

"In  war,"  writes  Ferdinand  Foch,  "there  is  but 
one  manner  of  considering  every  question;  that  is 
the  objective  manner.  War  is  not  an  art  of  pleasure 
or  sport,  indulged  in  without  other  reason  as  one 
might  go  in  for  painting,  music,  hunting,  or  tennis 
which  can  be  taken  up  or  stopped  at  will.  In  war 
everything  is  correlated.  Every  move  has  some 
reason,  seeks  some  object;  once  that  object  is 
determined  it  decides  the  nature  and  the  importance 
of  the  means  to  be  employed.  The  object  in  every 
case  is  the  answer  to  the  question  which  faced 
Verdy  du  Vernois  as  he  reached  the  field  of  battle 
at  Nachod. 

"Realizing  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  he 
seeks  in  vain  through  his  memory  for  an  example 
or  a  principle  which  will  show  him  what  to  do.  No 
inspiration  comes.  'To  the  devil,'  says  he,  'with 
history  and  principles !  After  all,  what  is  my 
objective?'  And  his  mind  is  immediately  made 
up.  Such  is  the  objective  manner  of  handling  a 


250  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

problem.     A  move  is  considered  in  relation  to  the 
objective  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word :  WHAT  is 

THE   OBJECTIVE? 

"This  similar  manner  of  considering  questions 
and  of  understanding  them  causes  a  similar  manner 
of  action.  But  what  follows  is  an  unrestricted 
application  of  every  means  to  the  objective  sought. 
The  habit  once  formed  of  studying  and  acting  on 
many  specific  cases,  it  will  be  instinctively  and 
almost  unconsciously  that  the  work  is  done.  Verdy 
du  Vernois  is  an  instance.  'To  the  devil,'  says  he, 
'with  history  and  principles,'  yet  he  makes  use  of 
his  knowledge  of  history  and  principles;  without 
training  along  such  lines,  without  the  acquired 
habit  of  reasoning  and  deciding  he  would  have  been 
unable  to  face  a  difficult  situation.  .  .  . 

"We  must  first  understand  truths  and,  therefore, 
have  an  open  mind,  without  prejudice,  ready-made 
ideas,  or  theories  blindly  accepted  merely  because  they 
rest  on  tradition.  One  standard  alone,  that  of 
reason.  Then  we  must  apply  these  truths  to  specific 
cases,  on  the  map  at  first,  on  the  ground  later,  the 
battlefield  ultimately.  Let  us  not  look  for  similar- 
ities, let  us  not  appeal  to  our  memory,  it  would  desert 
us  at  the  first  cannon  shot,  and  let  us  avoid  all  charts 
or  formulae.  We  wish  to  reach  the  field  with  a 
trained  power  of  judgment;  it  only  needs  to  have 
us  train  it,  to  have  us  begin  training  it  to-day.  Let 
us  for  that  purpose  seek  the  reason  of  things ;  that 
will  show  us  how  to  use  them. 

"It  will  be  necessary,  finally,  to  employ  un- 
consciously some  truths.  For  that  purpose  they 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    251 

must  be  so  familiar  to  us  as  to  have  entered  into 
our  bones,  to  be  a  component  part  of  ourselves. 

"Those  are  happy  who  are  born  believers,  but  they 
are  not  numerous.  Neither  is  a  man  born  learned  or 
born  muscular.  Each  one  of  us  must  build  up  his 
faith,  his  beliefs,  his  knowledge,  his  muscles.  Results 
will  not  spring  from  any  sudden  revelation  or  light, 
as  by  a  stroke  of  lightning.  We  can  only  attain 
them  through  a  continued  effort  at  understanding, 
at  assimilation.  Do  not  the  simplest  of  arts  make 
the  same  requirements  ?  Who  would  expect  to  learn 
in  a  few  moments  or  even  in  a  few  lessons,  to  ride, 
etc.  .  .  . 

"You  will  be  asked  later  to  be  the  brains  of  an 
army ;  I  say  unto  you  to-day  :  Learn  to  think.  In 
the  presence  of  every  question  considered  independ- 
ently and  by  itself  ask  yourself  first:  What  is  the 
objective?  That  is  the  first  step  toward  the  state 
of  mind  to  be  attained ;  that  is  the  direction  sought, 
purely  objective." l  These  are  the  golden  words  of  a 
master  whose  theory  has  met  the  pragmatic  test. 

The  scientist  works  by  objectives.  He  does  not 
investigate  in  general.  Francis  Bacon's  advice  to 
him  to  collect  facts  and  go  on  collecting  facts  until 
the  dead  weight  of  their  identities  or  their  differences 
revealed  principles  and  laws  has  never  been  success- 
fully applied.  Nature  answers  the  questions  which 
men  ask  her.  She  makes  no  revelations  to  them 
who  do  not  carefully  frame  the  questions  whose 
answer  they  seek.  The  process  of  scientific  dis- 

'Foch:  "The  Principles  of  War,"  translated  by  De  Morinni,  pp.  17, 
18.  22,  23.  The  H.  K.  Fly  Co.,  N.  Y. 


252  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

covery  has  been  immensely  fruitful  because  it  has 
been  preceded  by  painfully  exact  consideration  of  the 
kind  of  knowledge  which  is  sought  and  the  conditions 
which  must  be  used  to  put  the  matter  of  the  specific 
inquiry  to  the  test.  The  broadside  method  of 
attack  had  to  be  abandoned  before  the  real  dis- 
coveries of  a  genuine  science  could  begin. 

The  example  of  the  inventor  is  equally  directive. 
He  does  not  look  in  general  or  search  by  wholesale. 
He  starts  with  a  problem,  a  fairly  definite  and  con- 
crete problem,  and  little  by  little  he  puzzles  out  its 
solution.  Scientific  management  proceeds  in  the 
same  fashion.  We  need  a  whole  new  literature  of 
method  to  put  these  more  refined,  more  fruitful 
ways  of  going  to  work  at  the  disposal  of  every  one. 

The  thing  that  America  has  learned  about  training 
is  that  it,  too,  must  have  an  objective.  The  miracle 
which  she  has  performed  of  putting  a  well-prepared 
and  most  effective  fighting  force  of  two  million 
men  into  the  trenches  within  eighteen  months  of  her 
entry  into  the  war  is  due  to  the  fact  that  she  took 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Paul  Azan's  advice  to  heart 
and  followed  it.  The  old-time  ritualistic  training  for 
war  would  have  gotten  her  nowhere.  The  process 
had  to  be  speeded  up  and  it  had  to  be  made  as  definite 
as  it  could  be.  Schools  were  organized  for  intensive 
training  in  each  of  the  different  kinds  of  arms. 
Groups  of  French  and  English  officers  were  sent  to 
each  cantonment:  the  English  to  train  instructors 
in  five  specialties,  the  machine  gun,  the  light  trench 
mortar,  the  use  of  the  bayonet,  liquid  fire  and  gas 
warfare,  and  sniping ;  the  French  to  give  instruction 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    253 

in  the  use  of  artillery,  the  machine  rifle,  grenades, 
sapping,  and  liaison  service.  This  instruction  began 
at  the  top,  the  first  consideration  being  to  train 
military  instructors  who  in  turn  trained  the  new 
officers,  who  in  turn  trained  the  men. 

Any  one  who  has  been  privileged  to  visit  a  ground 
school  where  prospective  aviators  are  being  prepared 
by  a  three  months'  course  to  enter  the  flying  school 
will  not  soon  forget  how  hard  they  work  and  what 
rapid  progress  they  make  in  their  studies.  The 
mathematics  and  the  mechanics  of  their  craft, 
the  assembling  and  care  of  their  machines,  the  mili- 
tary lessons,  and  the  physical  training  which  they 
take  are  all  speeded  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
intensity.  There  is  no  idling  anywhere,  and  when 
free  time  comes  on  Saturday  at  noon  the  men  on  their 
own  initiative  form  themselves  into  quiz  classes  and 
take  refuge  in  the  private  rooms  of  the  nearest  hotel 
in  order  to  go  over  together,  in  little  groups,  the 
work  of  the  week  which  their  instructors  have  just 
given  them. 

A  system  of  instruction  in  rifle  shooting  developed 
by  the  Second  Battalion,  14th  U.  S.  Infantry,  is 
based  upon  the  conviction  that  every  man  can  learn 
to  shoot.  It  omits  everything  which  is  not  essential 
to  making  the  soldier  a  good  shot.  The  preliminary 
training  covers  one  week  of  intensive  work.  There 
are  four  distinct  steps :  first,  sighting  and  aiming ; 
second,  positions ;  third,  the  trigger  squeeze ;  fourth, 
rapid  fire.  Each  step  starts  with  a  lecture  and 
demonstrations  by  an  instructor  to  the  assembled 
command,  but  every  individual  who  hears  it  must 


254  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

understand  each  point  which  is  made  and  explain 
it  in  his  own  words.  Blank  forms  are  supplied  to  each 
squad  leader  upon  which  the  record  of  every  man's 
proficiency  in  each  of  the  essential  points  is  kept. 
Exactness  in  details  is  demanded.  "There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  sight  that  is  about  right ;  it  is  either  abso- 
lutely right  or  it  is  all  wrong."  The  essentials  of  good 
shooting  are  three  —  correct  aiming,  correct  position, 
correct  trigger-squeeze.  Rapid  firing  calls,  in  addi- 
tion, for  correct  loading  from  the  clip,  correct  work- 
ing of  the  bolt,  and  the  persistent  keeping  of  the  eye 
upon  the  target  while  working  the  bolt.  A  man  who 
is  learning  to  shoot  must  have  a  coach  beside  him  to 
point  out  his  errors.  The  coach  must  watch  what  the 
man  does  —  the  right  eye  of  the  man  —  not  the  tar- 
get or  "he  might  as  well  not  be  there  at  all."  The 
course  of  instruction  has  two  parts,  the  preparatory 
exercises  and  range  practice.  The  handbook  deals 
only  with  the  preparatory  exercises,  "because  this  is 
the  period  of  training  during  which  the  man  learns 
everything  necessary  to  become  a  good  shot." 

Another  illustration  of  the  method  of  training  by 
immediate  objectives  I  take  from  the  experience  of  the 
Committee  on  Education  and  Special  Training  of  the 
War  Department  in  preparing  men  for  the  motor 
transport  service  of  the  United  States  army.  The 
training  which  was  given  the  motor  transport  per- 
sonnel at  first  was  subdivided  into  courses  for 
mechanics,  courses  for  repair  men,  and  courses  for 
drivers.  This  was  found  to  be  unsatisfactory  be- 

1 "  Individual  Instruction  in  Rifle  Practice,"  by  Lieut.-Col.  A.  J. 
McNab,  Jr.,  U.  S.  A.  Cincinnati,  Stewart  &  Kidd  Co.,  1918. 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    255 

cause  it  did  not  produce  the  expert  service  which 
was  demanded.  A  list  of  the  most  important 
mechanical  occupations  of  the  motor  transport 
service  in  the  order  of  their  importance,  as  deter- 
mined by  the  demand  which  the  army  made  for  men 
trained  in  them,  was  then  compiled.  It  ran :  Auto 
Driver,  Truck  Driver,  Auto  Repairer-General,  Auto 
Repairer-Chassis,  Auto  Repairer-Engine  Assembler, 
Auto  Repairer-Axle  and  Transmission  Assembler, 
Auto  Repairer-Truck  Body,  Electrician-Magneto 
and  Ignition  Expert,  Electrician-Automobile  General, 
Tire  Repairer-Rubber,  Motorcycle  Repairer  Expert, 
Auto  Repairer-Radiator,  Auto  Repairer-Carburetor, 
Wheelwright  etc. 

As  trained  specialists  of  these  several  kinds  were 
urgently  demanded,  the  schools  which  were  endeavor- 
ing to  train  fighting  mechanics  were  urged  to 
specialize  their  courses,  focusing  the  training  of  each 
man  upon  the  particular  service  which  he  was  to 
render.  That  did  not  mean  that  they  were  to 
endeavor  to  make  him  a  narrow  specialist.  The 
man  who  knew  more  of  ignition  than  of  engine  or 
rear  axle  assembling  was  not  given  instruction  in 
ignition  alone.  He  was  given  that,  but  in  addition 
he  was  trained  as  a  soldier  and  given  a  course  in  the 
origin  and  aims  of  the  war ;  but  his  military  training 
and  his  course  in  war  aims  were  just  as  specific  as 
his  instruction  in  ignition  was. 

Illustrations  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 
One  could  take  them  from  every  branch  and  depart- 
ment of  the  army.  They  constitute  indeed  a  new  type 
of  education.  Even  the  college  courses  for  Section 


256  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

A  of  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps  were  made 
over  by  the  Committee  on  Education  and  given  a 
form  hardly  less  definite  and  specific  than  the  in- 
struction which  it  prescribed  for  the  vocational 
training  of  the  men  of  Section  B.  The  improvement 
in  method  is  significant.  As  a  people  we  have  made 
an  experiment  demonstrating  the  superiority  of 
working  by  purposes  to  every  other  form  of  working 
—  an  educational  experiment  of  such  import  that 
we  can  never  go  back  to  the  old  aimlessness  of  other 
days.  Henceforth  we  are  in  a  position  to  say  with 
Verdy  du  Vernois  whenever  we  are  invited  to  study 
history,  or  literature,  or  languages,  or  mathematics, 
or  science,  or  art,  or  philosophy,  just  as  history,  or 
literature,  or  language,  or  mathematics,  or  science 
or  art,  or  philosophy,  "To  the  devil  with  them! 
What  is  my  objective  ?  "  That,  after  all,  is  the  great 
lesson  of  the  war.  That  is  the  thing  which  democ- 
racy is,  life  in  pursuit  of  objectives;  while  autoc- 
racy, with  all  its  works  and  trappings  of  which  Ger- 
man education  in  whatever  country  it  may  have 
found  an  echo  is  one,  is  life  without  objectives,  life 
arbitrarily  determined,  handed  down,  prearranged 
without  reasons  or  purposes,  life  held  in  place  by 
force,  brute  force,  forever  at  war  with  intelligent 
human  objectives. 

There  is  need  of  reconstruction  in  American  edu- 
cation to  meet  this  requirement.  It  has  not  been  a 
clear-sighted  striving  for  definitely  valuable  objec- 
tives. It  has  hardly  set  before  itself  the  object  of 
training  young  people  to  use  the  humanly  valuable 
activities  about  which  books  are  written  and  studied. 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES  257 

It  has  been  content  if  they  learned  from  their  text- 
books the  definitions,  descriptions,  and  rules  which 
supplied  a  brief  knowledge  about  these  activities, 
but  little  or  no  knowledge  of  them.  It  has  not 
thought  of  the  study  of  physics  as  undertaken  to 
teach  folks  how  to  take  hold  of,  and  lift  and  shove  the 
material  masses  which  they  must  move  out  of  their 
way  as  they  go  about  this  planet.  It  has  not 
regarded  mathematics  as  a  device  for  calculating 
strains  and  tensions,  the  curves  of  projectiles,  and 
the  course  of  ether  waves.  It  has  thought  of  it 
instead  as  a  cross  section  of  eternal  truth.  It  has 
not  concerned  itself  so  much  with  the  lessons  of 
history  as  with  the  completeness  of  the  record. 
It  has  studied  literature  as  a  painstaking  research 
into  minor  matters  rather  than  as  an  indispensable 
shaper  of  human  loves  and  hates.  It  has  studied 
language  as  illustrations  of  philologie.  Civics  or 
government  was  a  pretty  impersonal  account  of  the 
arrangements  which  somehow  or  other  had  gotten 
themselves  written  down  in  books,  rather  than  a 
vivid  story  of  the  efforts  of  the  human  herds 
which  had  produced  them  to  live  together  by  their 
means. 

In  short,  the  trouble  with  American  education  in 
the  past  has  been  its  intellectualism.  It  has  regarded 
knowledge  as  a  description  of  reality,  not  as  a  guide 
to  the  shaping  of  reality.  It  has  treated,  or  at  least 
tended  to  treat,  the  human  mind  as  a  mirror  of 
existence  rather  than  an  enginery  of  intentions,  aims 
and  purposes.  In  this  great  day  when  no  existence, 
not  even  our  own,  is  of  concern  to  us  save  as  it 


258  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

aids  or  thwarts  the  intentions  toward  which  we 
strive,  we  commit  ourselves  to  a  new  philosophy. 
The  gathering  of  descriptions,  the  amassing  of  facts, 
the  acquiring  of  knowledge  about  the  things  which 
are,  can  not  any  longer  be  our  main  business.  That 
is  too  indefinite  a  task,  for  existences  are  infinite 
and  the  getting  of  knowledge  about  them  is  a  never- 
ending  undertaking.  We  must  have  a  principle  by 
which  to  select  the  important  from  the  unimportant. 
What  things  are  essential?  we  ask.  And  the  War 
Department  answers  by  telling  us  what  kind  of 
French  or  German  or  English  or  mathematics  or 
geography  will  help  in  the  effort  to  augment  the 
nation's  strength.  Shall  we,  when  the  war  is  over, 
go  back  to  the  old  ritualism  of  studying  French  or 
German  or  English  or  mathematics  or  geography, 
merely  as  a  tale  that  is  told,  or  shall  we  continue  to 
treat  these  studies  as  means  to  objectives?  It  is 
no  more  likely  that  education  will  ever  again  be  the 
aimless  series  of  rites  that  it  formerly  was  than  that 
agriculture  or  railroading  or  military  science  will 
forget  the  lessons  of  the  war. 

It  is  time,  therefore,  and  high  time,  for  an  active 
reconstruction  of  the  foundations  of  instruction. 
All  schools  must  share  in  it.  But  upon  the  elemen- 
tary schools  the  obligation  is  particularly  heavy  as 
they  immediately  concern  the  welfare  of  all.  The 
emergency  in  education  calls  for  monetary  aid,  for 
administrative  improvements,  for  better  school- 
houses,  more  days  of  instruction  per  year  and  larger 
numbers  of  trained  teachers.  Needed  they  all  are, 
but  the  greatest  need  is  the  elimination  of  ritualistic 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    259 

learning  through  the  remaking  of  the  studies  which 
are  taught  in  the  schools.  School  teachers  have 
been  urged  for  years  to  omit  the  useless  sections  and 
the  useless  problems  of  arithmetic  from  their  study 
of  that  subject.  President  Francis  A.  Walker  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  began  that 
crusade  in  1887.  He  declared  that  "a  false  arith- 
metic has  grown  up  which  has  largely  crowded  out 
the  place  of  the  true  arithmetic.  .  .  .  The  most 
jagged  fractions  such  as  would  hardly  ever  be  found 
in  actual  business  operations,  e.g.,  %?  or  £f>  are  piled 
one  on  top  of  another,  to  produce  an  unreal  and  im- 
possible difficulty;  and  the  child,  having  been 
furnished  with  such  an  arithmetical  monstrosity,  is 
set  to  multiplying  or  dividing  it  by  another  'com- 
pound and  complex  fraction '  as  unreal  and  ridiculous 
as  itself.  All  this  sort  of  thing  in  the  teaching  of 
young  children  is  either  useless  or  mischievous.  .  .  . 
The  charge  I  make  against  the  existing  course  of 
study  is  that  it  is  largely  made  up  of  exercises  which 
are  not  exercises  in  arithmetic  at  all,  or  principally, 
but  are  exercises  in  logic,  and,  secondly,  that  as 
exercises  in  logic,  these  are  either  useless  or  mis- 
chievous. .  .  .  Generally,  if  not  universally,  speak- 
ing, whatever  in  education  is  hard,  is  wrong."  Many 
years  have  gone  by  since  that  reform  began.  Im- 
provement has  taken  place  here  and  there,  but  the 
arithmetic  which  is  taught  is  still  for  the  most  part 
the  traditional  thing  which  Dr.  Walker  found  so 
meaningless. 

Improvement  there  has  been,  too,  in  the  teaching 
of  spelling,  though  it  is  not  generally  registered  in 


260  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

spelling  books  or  found  in  the  bulk  of  classes  engaged 
in  studying  spelling.  The  prevailing  notion  seems 
still  to  be  that  children  are  taught  to  spell  in  order 
that  they  may  know  how  to  spell  the  words  in  the 
English  language.  That  there  are  more  words  in 
the  language  than  they  can  ever  hope  to  master, 
and  that  they  will  have  occasion  in  life  to  spell  only 
a  very  few  of  them,  does  not  seem  to  guide  in  the 
selection  of  the  words  which  are  included  in  their 
lessons.  It  ought  to  determine  those  lessons,  for  the 
question :  What  words  do  folks  have  occasion  to  spell 
when  they  write  ?  has  been  submitted  to  very  pains- 
taking and  fruitful  investigation  in  recent  years. 

Our  study  of  geography  has  left  us  woefully  un- 
informed concerning  many  of  the  things  which  all 
of  us  should  know  if  public  opinion  in  the  United 
States  is  to  keep  our  national  house  in  order.  For 
example,  Mexico  is  our  neighbor  and  we  must  at 
least  know  enough  of  her  to  form  an  intelligent  judg- 
ment of  our  country's  duty  in  the  several  relations 
with  her  which  arise.  But  how  many  of  our  people 
have  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  Mexico  to  form  an 
intelligent  opinion  about  her?  Perhaps  one  in  ten 
thousand.  We  have  a  neighbor  to  the  West,  a  great, 
proud,  capable,  and  splendid  neighbor.  We  must 
keep  the  peace  and  live  in  mutual  helpfulness  with 
her.  But  how  many  of  our  people  know  enough  of 
Japan  to  maintain  an  informed  opinion  concerning 
her?  It  was  the  same  with  Germany,  France, 
Italy,  and  even  England,  before  the  war.  We  did 
not  know  our  neighbors,  yet  that  knowledge  is  a 
matter  of  life  or  death  to  us.  We  study  geography ; 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    261 

but  we  do  not  seem  to  pick  out  the  facts  which  are 
presented  with  sufficient  care.  Because  we  do  not 
organize  our  teaching,  the  children  do  not  organize 
their  learning.  The  net  result  is  very  disappointing. 
It  is  much  the  same  with  history,  so  much  is  taught 
and  so  little  is  chosen  for  its  significance  that  little 
of  value  comes  from  that  study.  The  National 
Security  League  believes,  and  has  good  reason  to 
believe,  that  the  teaching  of  civics  should  be  re- 
formed. It  is  experimenting  to  find  out  how  that 
may  be  done.  What  is  true  of  these  studies  is 
equally  true  of  the  twelve  or  thirteen  other  subjects 
which  are  taught  in  American  elementary  schools. 
They  should  be  made  over,  reconstructed,  in  the  light 
of  the  nation's  new  knowledge  of  what  training  is. 
Here  and  there,  a  teacher  more  discontented  than 
his  fellows,  has  for  years  been  asking  himself  the 
questions :  What  is  arithmetic  for  ?  Why  do  we 
study  spelling  ?  What  is  our  aim  in  teaching  civics  ? 
Why  is  American  history  taught?  What  is  our 
uppermost  purpose  in  teaching  geography?  The 
number  of  folks  who  have  been  forced  by  the  per- 
sistence of  their  own  active  minds  to  find  answers  to 
these  questions  is  not  by  any  means  so  great  as  is 
the  number  which  has  asked  them.  They  are  the 
most  profitable  questions  which  teachers  can  ask, 
for,  if  we  take  them  seriously  enough,  they  will 
commit  us  to  the  view  that  teaching  is  not  indeed  the 
unwinding,  link  by  link,  of  a  chain  which  was  forged 
in  the  past,  but  a  purposive  undertaking  which 
proceeds  or,  rather,  should  proceed,  only  by  clearly 
conceived  objectives.  Thinkers  not  a  few  have 


262  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

known  that  all  along.  Their  efforts  to  convert  their 
fellows  have  been  persistent.  The  literature  which 
they  have  contributed  is  extensive,  yet  the  new 
method  of  attack  does  not  find  general  acceptance. 
Routinary  aimlessness  still  obtains.  The  children  go 
through  the  textbooks  from  cover  to  cover.  They  do 
not  learn  to  distinguish  the  important  from  the  less 
important  and  the  relatively  unimportant.  Even 
though  the  course  of  study  be  written  from  the  new 
standpoint  and  the  reports  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Economy  of  Time  in  Instruction  pile  up  the  reasons 
for  rejecting  much  that  the  books  contain,  our  prac- 
tice lags  far  behind  our  theory.  How  can  that 
difficulty  be  overcome  ? 

There  is,  I  believe,  only  one  way.  The  teachers 
themselves  must  make  the  course  of  study.  If  any 
one  else  prepares  it,  they  will  not  be  able  to  make  full 
use  of  it.  If  they  prepare  it  themselves,  it  is  their 
own  plan  of  campaign  which  they  can  not  disregard 
even  though  they  find  it  difficult  to  carry  it  out. 
I  know  a  group  of  superintendents  of  schools  who 
decided  a  year  ago,  under  the  stress  and  stimulus  of 
the  time,  that  waste  was  as  intolerable  in  schools 
as  in  kitchens  or  dining  rooms,  that  they  therefore 
would  do  what  they  could  to  take  advantage  of  the 
universal  eagerness  for  improvement  and  would  make 
over  the  instruction  in  their  schools  so  as  to  eliminate 
waste  as  completely  as  they  could.  They  resolved 
to  reconstruct  the  courses  of  study  in  the  schools  of 
their  region  and  banded  themselves  together  to  do 
so.  "Our  object,"  they  said,  "is  to  attempt  through 
the  labors  of  a  series  of  carefully  selected  committees  to 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    263 

clearly  define  the  purpose  which  should  regulate  the 
teaching  of  each  of  the  several  elementary  school 
studies,  and  in  accordance  with  that  purpose  to 
reduce  each  of  these  studies  to  its  lowest  terms  by 
eliminating  all  lessons  and  parts  of  lessons  which  do 
not  specifically  contribute  to  that  purpose,  and  to 
study  the  best  ways  and  means  of  attaining  that  pur- 
pose in  the  teaching  of  each  subject."  They  created 
a  series  of  committees,  one  to  examine  and  report 
upon  each  of  the  studies  in  the  elementary  course. 
Each  superintendent  appointed  the  best  teacher,  or 
the  best  two  or  three  teachers  of  that  subject 
in  his  company  to  work  on  that  committee.  When 
they  came  together  there  were  some  eighteen  com- 
mittees with  ten  or  more  members  each.  The 
superintendents  said  to  them:  "We  have  called 
you  together  to  ask  you  to  study  and  to  answer  four 
questions  which  vitally  affect  the  schools  of  this 
state.  The  first  question  is :  What  is  your  subject 
for  ?  What  is  its  aim  ?  What  is  its  purpose  ?  The 
second  question,  which  must  be  answered  in  the  light 
of  the  first,  is :  What  are  the  essentials  of  your 
subject?  What  parts  of  it  are  of  first-rate  im- 
portance, as  distinguished  from  the  aspects  of  it 
which  are  only  of  second-rate  or  third-rate  value? 
We  want  you  to  skeletonize  your  subject  so  that  we 
shall  have  a  course  of  study  which  will  be  made  up 
of  minimum  essentials.  These  two  questions  we  want 
you  to  answer  in  your  first  report.  The  ques- 
tion, how  a  subject  shall  be  taught,  ought  not  to 
determine  what  should  be  taught.  Subjects  should 
be  taught  for  other  reasons  than  the  traditional 


264  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

demands  of  pedagogical  method.  After  you  have 
decided  why  your  several  subjects  should  be  taught 
and  what  parts  of  them  are  essential  to  that  objective, 
you  will  next  undertake  to  answer  a  third  question : 
What  in  the  light  of  its  purpose  and  of  its  content  is 
the  best  method  to  teach  your  subject?  And, 
fourth :  What  tests  are  there  by  which  you  can 
determine  whether  or  not  it  is  being  mastered  success- 
fully?" 

These  committees  of  working  teachers  were  urged 
to  master  the  literature  which  deals  with  the  aims, 
essentials,  and  methods  of  their  subject.  Their 
fellow  teachers  in  their  group  of  schools  collaborated 
with  them.  The  committees  met  at  intervals 
throughout  the  year.  Each  committee  presented  its 
answers  to  the  first  two  questions.  These  reports 
were  studied,  line  by  line,  by  the  superintendents  and 
referred  back  to  the  committees  for  revision.  That 
work  is  still  going  on,  but  already  a  new  spirit  has 
entered  the  schools  of  their  part  of  the  state.  Educa- 
tion by  objectives  has  taken  the  place  of  education  by 
meaningless  routine.  So  confident  are  the  superin- 
tendents of  the  cities  which  the  committees  rep- 
resent that  results  of  value  are  coming  from  their 
deliberations,  that  they  have  formed  themselves  into 
a  league  of  school  systems  to  use  the  committee- 
made  course  of  study  and  henceforth  to  conduct 
their  common  business  cooperatively. 

Man  is  a  working  animal.  He  works  instinctively 
and  by  habit.  Usually  he  perceives  the  meaning  of 
his  work  only  dimly.  He  is  but  one  of  many  in 
a  great  enterprise,  and  the  service  which  that  enter- 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES   265 

prise  renders  he  finds  somewhat  too  remote  to  be 
clearly  imaged.  It  is  only  in  moments  of  great 
stress,  like  the  present,  that  he  is  able  to  exchange 
his  blind  fidelities  for  conscious  awareness  of  aims 
and  reasons.  While  the  stress  endures,  he  can  live 
purposively.  When  it  is  over  he  may  sink  down  into 
a  humdrum  existence  again.  But  education  should 
never  be  a  humdrum  matter.  It  is  its  privilege 
always  to  be  concerned  with  aims  and  to  proceed 
at  every  step  by  objectives.  The  reorganization  of 
which  we  have  spoken  is  only  a  beginning.  There 
must  be  a  reason  why  young  people  should  study 
arithmetic  and  geography  and  history.  That  reason, 
if  we  could  find  it,  would  tell  us  at  once  what  arith- 
metic and  geography  and  history  they  should  study 
and  would  tell  us  quite  as  conclusively  how  they 
should  study  it.  Our  first  duty,  therefore,  is  to 
study  our  aim  in  teaching  each  of  the  subjects  which 
we  invite  the  young  to  study.  But  having  found 
what  our  aim  is,  we  have  made  only  a  beginning. 
Just  as  certainly  as  we  teach  geography  for  one  pur- 
pose and  history  for  another,  just  so  certainly  should 
our  aim  in  teaching  to-day's  lesson  in  geography 
be  different  from  our  aim  in  teaching  to-morrow's 
lesson.  In  genuine  learning  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  mere  repetition.  There  must  be  something  new 
to  be  done  each  day,  some  new  point  to  be  attacked, 
some  new  objective  to  be  reached.  Children  are  no 
more  content  than  adults  to  mark  time.  Their 
active  nature  longs  to  go  forward,  to  add  to-day's 
conquest  to  yesterday's  gain.  They  are  content  to 
study  English  or  geography  or  history  for  years 


266  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

provided  that  each  day's  English  or  geography  or 
history  be  not  an  aimless  rehashing  of  that  which  was 
studied  yesterday  or  last  week  or  last  year.  Now, 
most  of  our  courses  of  study  do  not  provide  specific 
lessons  which  offer  daily  gains.  They  invite  us  to 
take  the  same  subject  over  and  over  again  until  we 
have  attained  a  kind  of  routine  familiarity  with  it 
instead  of  planning  our  attack  upon  it  so  that  we 
master  first  this  aspect  of  it,  then  that,  then  the 
other,  and  in  due  course  have  mastered  all.  Educa- 
tion by  immediate  objectives  will  set  a  new  problem 
for  each  day.  It  will  break  up  each  subject  of  in- 
struction into  its  constituent  parts  and  arrange  those 
parts  in  a  progressive  series.  It  will  begin  with  a 
discussion  of  what  it  is  that  the  student  is  to  learn 
to  do  in  his  studying  of  that  particular  subject. 
It  will  next  inform  him  what  it  is  he  is  to  learn  to  do 
in  connection  with  each  of  its  grand  divisions. 
When  the  ground  has  been  properly  charted,  he  will 
be  invited  to  begin  a  series  of  daily  doings  each 
different  from  that  which  preceded  it  and  each 
sufficiently  exacting  to  impart  the  sense  of  a  new 
undertaking  as  he  contemplates  it  and  a  new  accom- 
plishment as  he  leaves  it  to  take  up  the  next  day's 
problem.  Only  by  seeing  to  it  that  each  lesson 
provides  its  unique  demand  for  skill,  calls  forth  a  new 
effort  and  means  a  step  forward,  can  desultory 
school  work  with  its  motivation-destroying  and 
interest-killing  effects  be  banished.  Only  immediate 
objectives  make  intensive  training  possible.  Going 
forward  twenty  lines  in  advance  in  translation  or 
fifty  map  questions  or  a  dozen  examples  is  humdrum 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    267 

work,  but  looking  forward  to  a  new  argument  to  be 
untangled,  a  new  country  to  be  examined,  or  a  new 
principle  to  be  applied,  offers  opportunity  to  show 
one's  strength,  and  to  add  to  one's  achievement. 

Let  no  one  object  that  this  method  of  specific 
attack  applies  only  to  practical  studies.  It  applies 
to  all  studies  which  have  any  definite  lessons  for  the 
young  or  for  the  old  to  learn.  It  banishes  nothing 
which  has  either  organized  or  organizable  worth  from 
any  curriculum.  It  banishes  subject  worship  and 
the  practice  of  keeping  just  any  kind  of  company  with 
studies,  and  substitutes,  for  the  slothfulness  of 
believing  that  so  long  as  we  are  in  their  presence  a 
certain  portion  of  our  waking  lives  that  somehow  or 
other  they  will  do  us  good,  the  conviction  that  it  is 
what  we  learn  to  do  with  them,  rather  than  what 
they  do  to  us,  that  counts. 

There  is  one  other  corollary.  With  intensive  labor, 
wasted  years  are  saved.  Not  only  is  the  work  of 
education  better  done  and  the  student  better  trained, 
but  the  long-drawn-out  process  is  shortened.  The 
finality  of  the  time  standard  as  a  measure  of  educa- 
tion was  discredited  for  all  coming  days  when  an 
American  army,  prepared  in  one  year,  destroyed  the 
military  prowess  which  Germany  had  labored  for 
fifty  years  to  attain.  "They  are  men,"  said  Ferdi- 
nand Foch,  their  Commander-in-Chief,  "who  do  not 
know  fear  but  know  obedience,  and  are  led  by 
officers  who  may  be  counted  upon."  Is  it  not 
possible,  while  the  methods  of  this  huge  world- 
convincing  experiment  are  fresh  in  our  minds,  to 
apply  its  lesson  in  some  measure  to  the  condensation 


268  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

of  the  over-long  training  for  peace?  By  a  reduction 
of  studies  to  their  essentials,  and  by  the  adoption  of 
learning  by  immediate  objectives,  could  we  not 
reduce  our  present  nineteen  or  twenty-year-long 
programs  by  as  much  as  four  years?  We  shall  be 
poorer  when  this  war  is  over,  poorer  to  the  end  of 
our  days  and  the  whole  world  poorer  with  us, 
because  of  this  adventure  for  world  empire  of  the 
Hohenzollern  family.  The  young  men  from  whose 
ranks  were  to  come  the  intellectual  leaders,  the  engi- 
neers, the  physicians,  the  teachers,  the  statesmen, 
the  producers,  the  manufacturers,  the  master  work- 
men, will  not  return  in  such  numbers  as  they  went 
forth.  The  schools  will  have  to  work  harder  to 
train  others  to  fill  their  places  and  in  addition  they 
will  have  to  train  all  more  diligently  for  the  larger 
life  of  service  which  our  nation  has  taken  upon  itself. 
It  is  unlikely  that  they  can  perform  their  part  in  the 
world's  reconstruction  unless  they  are  in  session 
forty-eight  weeks  of  each  year  instead  of  thirty- 
six,  as  hitherto.  The  time  has  come  to  use  the 
educational  plants  of  the  country  to  capacity. 
Allowing  them  to  stand  idle  for  one-fourth  of  the 
year  is  not  working  them  to  their  limit  of  usefulness. 
With  proper  health  supervision,  only  such  students 
as  are  physically  able  to  profit  by  four  terms  of 
school  work  a  year  would  be  allowed  to  take  it; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  school  which  gives  due 
attention  to  the  physical  welfare  of  its  students  will 
bring  them  through  a  year  of  continuous  work  in 
better  condition  than  they  now  are  in  at  the  end  of 
thirty-six  weeks  of  school  work  and  a  long  vacation 


EDUCATION  BY  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTIVES    269 

of  somewhat  too  profitless  idleness  in  which  they 
lack  well-motivated  occupation  and  the  guidance 
and  watchfulness  of  their  elders.  The  continuous 
session  school  will  be  able  to  provide  more  time  for 
playground  activities  and  perhaps  for  weekly  excur- 
sions. It  need  not  be  as  much  of  a  constraining  in- 
fluence in  young  lives  as  schools  have  sometimes  been. 
It  seems  unlikely  that  in  the  days  after  the  war 
the  school  system  will  be  content  to  offer  the  fullest 
opportunity  of  training  to  but  a  small  part  of  the 
youth  of  the  land.  The  war  has  shown  us  that  what 
the  country  needs  is  not  more  theoretically  trained 
men  or  more  practically  trained  men,  not  more 
engineers  and  more  workmen  to  carry  out  their  ideas, 
but  more  master-mechanics  who  know  the  theory 
of  their  craft  as  well  as  the  technique  which  that 
theory  should  control  and  direct.  Labor,  it  is  clear, 
is  coming  to  its  own  throughout  the  world.  It  will 
have  a  larger  share  in  the  necessities  and  the  comforts 
which  life  requires,  but  it  will  have  new  responsibili- 
ties. The  worker  and  the  worker's  children  must  be 
fitted  to  bear  them.  Trained  they  must  be  in  crafts- 
manship and  trained  as  well  to  civic  cooperative- 
ness.  On  the  other  hand,  the  problems  of  produc- 
tion are  put  by  a  thoughtful  employer1  in  this  order : 

1.  Education. 

2.  The  application  of  science  to  industry. 

3.  The  elimination  of  waste. 

4.  The  disposal  of  the  product. 

5.  Wages. 

6.  Profits. 

1  Mr.  Ernest  J.  P.  Benn,  Managing  Director  of  Benn  Brothers,  Ltd., 
in  Carter's  "  Industrial  Reconstruction."     E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co. 


270  WHAT  THE  WAR  TEACHES 

Those  who  speculate  concerning  the  future  look 
forward  with  much  confidence  to  the  upbuilding  of 
world-wide  unity  of  desire  and  endeavor.  The  food 
shortage,  which  will  perhaps  exist  for  some  years, 
will  require  the  land  to  be  scientifically  treated. 
An  enormous  work  of  repairing  roads,  railroads, 
factories,  cities,  and  whole  countries  must  be  pushed 
forward.  Increased  production  must,  if  it  can  be 
made  to  do  so,  pay  the  annual  increments  of  the 
huge  war  debt.  Greater  efficiency,  through  larger 
scientific  skill,  will  be  required  in  all  industries. 
Cooperation  will  be  the  universal  objective.  Capital 
and  labor  will  develop  greater  mutuality  of  con- 
sideration than  in  the  past.  The  freedom  which 
men  by  millions  have  died  for  will  yield  the  abiding 
fellowship  which  their  devoted  fellowship  in  service 
planted.  The  heroic  age  of  our  American  people 
will  not  soon  come  to  a  close.  For  Thou,  my 
country,  art  that  puissant  nation  of  Milton's  vision 
and  "the  main  purport  of  These  States  is  to  found 
a  superb  friendship,  exalte,  previously  unknown." 


APPENDIX 


Education  Act,  1918. 

[8  &  9  GEO.  5.     CH.  39.] 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  SECTIONS.  A. D.  1918. 


National  System  of  Public  Education. 
Section. 

1.  Progressive  and  comprehensive  organisation  of  edu- 

cation. 

2.  Development    of    education    in    public    elementary 

schools. 

3.  Establishment  of  continuation  schools. 

4.  Preparation  and  submission  of  schemes. 

5.  Approval  of  schemes  by  Board  of  Education. 

6.  Provisions  as  to  co-operation  and  combination. 

7.  Provision  as  to  amount  of  expenditure  for  education. 

Attendance    at   School  and  Employment  of  Children  and 
Young  Persons. 

8.  Provisions  as  to  attendance  at  elementary  schools. 

9.  Provisions  for  avoidance  of  broken  school  terms. 

10.  Compulsory  attendance  at  continuation  schools. 

11.  Enforcement  of  attendance  at  continuation  schools. 

12.  Administrative   provisions    relating   to    continuation 

schools. 

13.  Amendment  of  3  Edw.  7.  c.  45  and  4  Edw.  7.  c.  15. 

14.  Prohibition  against  employment  of    children  in  fac- 

tories, workshops,  mines,  and  quarries. 

15.  Further  restrictions  on  employment  of  children. 

16.  Penalties  on  illegal  employment  of  children  and  young 

persons. 

Extension  of  Powers  and  Duties. 

17.  Power  to  promote  social  and  physical  training. 

18.  Medical  inspection  of  schools  and  educational  institu- 

tions. 

19.  Nursery  schools. 

20.  Education  of  physically  defective  and  epileptic  children. 

21.  Powers  for  the  education  of  children  in  exceptional 

circumstances. 

T  273 


274      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.D.  1918.       Section. 

22.  Amendment  of  Education  (Choice  of  Employment) 

Act,  1910. 

23.  Power  to  aid  research. 

24.  Provision  of  maintenance  allowances. 

25.  Provisions  as  to  medical  treatment. 

Abolition  of  Fees  in  Public  Elementary  Schools. 

26.  Abolition  of  fees  in  public  elementary  schools. 

Administrative  Provisions. 

27.  Voluntary  inspection  of  schools. 

28.  Collection  of  information  respecting  schools. 

29.  Provisions   with  respect  to  appointment  of  certain 

classes  of  teachers. 

30.  Provisions  as  to  closing  of  schools. 

31.  Grouping  of  non-provided  schools  of  the  same  de- 

nominational character. 

32.  Provisions  relating  to  central  schools  and  classes. 

33.  Saving  for  certain  statutory  provisions. 

34.  Acquisition  of  land  by  local  education  authority. 

35.  Power  to  provide  elementary  schools  outside  area. 

36.  Amendments  with  respect  to  the  allocation  of  ex- 

penses to  particular  areas. 
87.   Provisions  as  to  expenses  of  Provisional  Orders,  &c. 

38.  Expenses  of  education  meetings,  conferences,  &c. 

39.  Power  to  pay  expenses  of  prosecution  for  cruelty. 

40.  Public  inquiries  by  Board  of  Education. 

41.  Inspection  of  minutes. 

42.  Payments  to  the  Central  Welsh  Board. 

43.  Evidence  of  certificates,  &c.  issued  by  local  education 

authorities. 

Education  Grants. 

44.  Education  grants. 

Educational  Trusts. 

45.  Power  to  constitute  official  trustees  of  educational 

trust  property. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      275 


Section. 

46.  Exemption  of  assurance  of  property  for  educational 

purposes  from  certain  restrictions  under  the  Mort- 
main Acts. 

47.  Appointment  of  new  trustees  under  scheme. 

General. 

48.  Definitions. 

49.  Compensation  to  existing  officers. 

50.  Extension  of  certain  provisions  of  the  Education  Acts. 

51.  Repeals. 

52.  Short  title,  construction,  extent,  and  commencement. 
SCHEDULES. 

CHAPTER  39. 

An  Act  to  make  further  provision  with  respect  to  Edu- 
cation in  England  and  Wales  and  for  purposes  connected 
therewith.  [8th  August  1918.] 

T)E  it  enacted  by  the  King's  most  Excellent  Majesty, 
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Lords 
Spiritual  and  Temporal,  and  Commons,  in  this  present 
Parliament  assembled,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same, 
as  follows :  — 

National  System  of  Public  Education. 

1.  With  a  view  to  the  establishment  of  a  national  system 
of  public  education  available  for  all  persons  capable  of 
profiting  thereby,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  council  of  every 
county  and  county  borough,  so  far  as  their  powers  extend, 
to  contribute   thereto  by  providing  for  the  progressive 
development  and  comprehensive  organisation  of  education 
in  respect  of   their  area,  and  with  that  object  any  such 
council  from  time  to  time  may,  and  shall  when  required 
by  the  Board  of  Education,  submit  to  the  Board  schemes 
showing  the  mode  in  which  their  duties  and  powers  under 
the  Education  Acts  are  to  be  performed  and  exercised, 
whether  separately  or  in  co-operation  with  other  authorities. 

2.  —  (1)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  a  local  education  au- 
thority so  to  exercise  their  powers  under  Part  III.  of  the 
Education  Act,  1902,  as  — 

(a)  to  make,  or  otherwise  to  secure,  adequate  and  suit- 
able provision  by  means  of  central  schools,  central 
or  special  classes,  or  otherwise  — 


A.D.  1918. 


Progressive 
and  compre- 
hensive or- 
ganisation of 
education. 


Develop- 
ment of  edu- 
cation in 
public  ele- 
mentary 
schools. 
2  Edw.  7. 
c.  42. 


276     ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 


A.D.  1918. 


7  Edw.  7. 
c.  43. 


33  A  34  Viet. 
o.75. 


Establish- 
ment of 

continuation 
schools. 


(i)  for  including  in  the'curriculum  of  public 
elementary  schools,  at  appropriate  stages,  prac- 
tical instruction  suitable  to  the  ages,  abilities, 
and  requirements  of  the  children ;  and 

(ii)  for  organising  in  public  elementary  schools 
courses  of  advanced  instruction  for  the  older  or 
more  intelligent  children  in  attendance  at  such 
schools,  including  children  who  stay  at  such 
schools  beyond  the  age  of  fourteen ; 

(b)  to  make,  or  otherwise  to  secure,  adequate  and  suit- 

able arrangements  under  the  provisions  of  para- 
graph (6)  of  subsection  (1)  of  section  thirteen  of 
the  Education  (Administrative  Provisions)  Act, 
1907,  for  attending  to  the  health  and  physical 
condition  of  children  educated  in  public  elemen- 
tary schools ;  and 

(c)  to  make,  or  otherwise  to  secure,  adequate  and  suit- 

able arrangements  for  co-operating  with  local 
education  authorities  for  the  purposes  of  Part  II. 
of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  in  matters  of  common 
interest,  and  particularly  in  respect  of  — 

(i)  the  preparation  of  children  for  further 
education  in  schools  other  than  elementary,  and 
their  transference  at  suitable  ages  to  such 
schools;  and 

(ii)  the  supply  and  training  of  teachers ; 
and  any  such  authority  from  time  to  time  may,  and  shall 
when  required  by  the  Board  of  Education,  submit  to  the 
Board  schemes  for  the  exercise  of  their  powers  as  an  au- 
thority for  the  purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act, 
1902. 

(2)  So  much  of  the  definition  of  the  term  "elementary 
school"  in  section  three  of  the  Elementary  Education  Act, 
1870,  as  requires  that  elementary  education  shall  be  the 
principal  part  of  the  education  there  given,  shall  not  apply 
to  such  courses  of  advanced  instruction  as  aforesaid. 

3.  —  (1)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  local  education 
authority  for  the  purposes  of  Part  II.  of  the  Education  Act, 
1902,  either  separately  or  in  co-operation  with  other  local 
education  authorities,  to  establish  and  maintain,  or  secure 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  under  their  control 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918     277 

and  direction,  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  continuation  schools     A.D.  1918. 
in  which  suitable  courses  of  study,  instruction,  and  physical 
training  are  provided  without  payment  of  fees  for  all  young 
persons  resident  in  their  area  who  are,  under  this  Act, 
under  an  obligation  to  attend  such  schools. 

(2)  For   the   purposes    aforesaid    the    local    education 
authority  from  time  to  time  may,  and  shall  when  required 
by  the  Board  of  Education,  submit  to  the  Board  schemes 
for  the  progressive  organisation  of  a  system  of  continua- 
tion schools,  and  for  securing  general  and  regular  attend- 
ance thereat,  and  in  preparing  schemes  under  this  section 
the  local  education  authority  shall  have  regard  to  the  de- 
sirability of  including  therein  arrangements  for  co-operation 
with  universities  in  the  provision  of  lectures  and  classes 
for  scholars  for  whom  instruction  by  such  means  is  suitable. 

(3)  The  council   of  any   county   shall,   if  practicable, 
provide  for  the  inclusion  of  representatives  of  education 
authorities  for  the  purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education 
Act,  1902,  in  any  body  of  managers  of  continuation  schools 
within  the  area  of  those  authorities. 

4.  —  (1)  The  council  of  any  county,  before  submitting    Preparation 

a  scheme  under  this  Act,  shall  consult  the  other  authorities    *.     S"bmi8~ 

sion  of 

within  their  county  (if  any)  who  are  authorities  for  the  schemes, 
purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  mode  in  which  and  the  extent  to  which  any 
such  authority  will  co-operate  with  the  council  in  carrying 
out  their  scheme,  and  when  submitting  their  scheme  shall 
make  a  report  to  the  Board  of  Education  as  to  the  co- 
operation which  is  to  be  anticipated  from  any  such  author- 
ity, and  any  such  authority  may,  if  they  so  desire,  submit 
to  the  Board  as  well  as  to  the  council  of  the  county  any 
proposals  or  representations  relating  to  the  provision  or 
organisation  of  education  in  the  area  of  that  authority 
for  consideration  in  connection  with  the  scheme  of  the 
county. 

(£)  Before  submitting  schemes  under  this  Act  a  local 
education  authority  shall  consider  any  representations 
made  to  them  by  parents  or  other  persons  or  bodies  of 
persons  interested,  and  shall  adopt  such  measures  to  ascer- 
tain their  views  as  they  consider  desirable,  and  the  author- 
ity shall  take  such  steps  to  give  publicity  to  their  proposals 


278      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Approval  of 
schemes  by 
Board  of 
Education. 


Provisions  as 
to  co-opera- 
tion and  com- 
bination. 


as  they  consider  suitable,  or  as  the  Board  of  Education 
may  require. 

(3)  A  local  education  authority  in  preparing  schemes 
under  this  Act  shall  have  regard  to  any  existing  supply  of 
efficient  and  suitable  schools  or  colleges  not  provided  by 
local  education  authorities,  and  to  any  proposals  to  provide 
such  schools  or  colleges. 

(4)  In  schemes  under  this  Act  adequate  provision  shall  be 
made  in  order  to  secure  that  children  and  young  persons 
shall  not  be  debarred  from  receiving  the  benefits  of  any 
form  of  education  by  which  they  are  capable  of  profiting 
through  inability  to  pay  fees. 

6.  —  (1)  The  Board  of  Education  may  approve  any 
scheme  (which  term  shall  include  an  interim,  provisional, 
or  amending  scheme)  submitted  to  them  under  this  Act 
by  a  local  education  authority,  and  thereupon  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  local  education  authority  to  give  effect  to 
the  scheme. 

(2)  If  the  Board  of  Education  are  of  opinion  that   a 
scheme  does  not  make  adequate  provision  in  respect  of  all 
or  any  of  the  purposes  to  which  the  scheme  relates,  and  the 
Board  are  unable  to  agree  with  the  authority  as  to  what 
amendments  should  be  made  in  the  scheme,  they  shall 
offer  to  hold  a  conference  with  the  representatives  of  the 
authority  and,  if  requested  by  the  authority,  shall  hold  a 
public  inquiry  in  the  matter. 

(3)  If  thereafter  the  Board  of  Education  disapprove  a 
scheme,  they  shall  notify  the  authority,  and,  if  within  one 
month  after  such  notification  an  agreement  is  not  reached, 
they  shall  lay  before  Parliament  the  report  of  the  public 
inquiry  (if  any)  together  with  a  report  stating  their  reasons 
for  such  disapproval  and  any  action  which  they  intend 
to  take  in  consequence  thereof  by  way  of  withholding  or 
reducing  any  grants  payable  to  the  authority. 

6.  —  (1)  For  the  purpose  of  performing  any  duty  or  exer- 
cising any  power  under  the  Education  Acts,  a  council 
having  powers  under  those  Acts  may  enter  into  such  ar- 
rangements as  they  think  proper  for  co-operation  or  com- 
bination with  any  other  council  or  councils  having  such 
powers,  and  any  such  arrangement  may  provide  for  the 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      279 

appointment  of  a  joint  committee  or  a  joint  body  of  mana-     A.D.  1918. 

gers,  for  the  delegation  to  that  committee  or  body  of  mana-  

gers  of  any  powers  or  duties  of  the  councils  (other  than  the 
power  of  raising  a  rate  or  borrowing  money),  for  the  pro- 
portion of  contributions  to  be  paid  by  each  council,  and  for 
any  other  matters  which  appear  necessary  for  carrying  out 
the  arrangement. 

(2)  The  Board  of  Education  may,  on  the  application 
of  two  or  more  councils  having  powers  under  the  Education 
Acts,  by  scheme  provide  for  the  establishment  and  (if 
thought  fit)  the  incorporation  of  a  federation  for  such  pur- 
poses of  any  such  arrangements  as  aforesaid  as  may  be 
specified   in   the  scheme  as   being  purposes   relating  to 
matters  of  common  interest  concerning  education  which 
it  is  necessary  or  convenient  to  consider  in  relation  to  areas 
larger  than  those  of  individual  education  authorities,  and 
the  powers  conferred  on  councils  by  this  section  shall  in- 
clude power  to  arrange  for  the  performance  of  any  educa- 
tional or  administrative  functions  by  such  a  federation  as 
if  it  were  a  joint  committee  or  a  joint  body  of  managers : 

Provided  that  no  council  shall  without  its  consent  be 
included  in  a  scheme  establishing  a  federation,  and  no 
council  shall  be  obliged  to  continue  in  a  federation  except 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  a  scheme  to  which  it 
has  consented. 

(3)  A  scheme  made  by  the  Board  of  Education  consti- 
tuting a  federation,  and  an  arrangement  establishing  a 
joint  committee  or  a  joint  body  of  managers,  shall  provide 
for  the  appointment  of  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  members 
by  councils  having  powers  under  the  Education  Acts,  and 
may  provide  either  directly  or  by  co-optation  for  the  in- 
clusion of  teachers  or  other  persons  of  experience  in  educa- 
tion and  of  representatives  of  universities  or  other  bodies. 

(4)  A  scheme  constituting  a  federation  may  on  the  appli- 
cation of  one  or  more  of  the  councils  concerned  be  modified 
or  repealed  by  a  further  scheme,  and,  where  a  scheme 
provides  for  the  discontinuance  of  a  federation,  provision 
may  be  made  for  dealing  with  any  property  or  liabilities 
of  the  federation. 

(5)  Where  any  arrangement  under  this  section  provides 
for  the  payment  of  an  annual  contribution  by  one  council 


280      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


Provisions 
as  to  attend- 
ance at 
elementary 
schools. 


A.D.  1918.  to  another,  the  contribution  shall,  for  the  purposes  of 
section  nineteen  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  form  part  of 
the  security  on  which  money  may  be  borrowed  under  that 
section. 

ProTision  as  7.  The  limit  under  section  two  of  the  Education  Act, 
eipend^ture°  ^^*»  on  ^e  amount  to  be  raised  by  the  council  of  a  county 
for  educa-  out  of  rates  for  the  purpose  of  education  other  than  elemen- 
tion.  j^jy  snai}  cease  to  have  effect. 


Attendance  at  School  and  Employment  of  Children  and 
Young  Persons. 

8.  —  (1)  Subject  as  provided  in  this  Act,  no  exemption 
from  attendance  at  school  shall  be  granted  to  any  child 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  years,  and  any  enact- 
ment giving  a  power,  or  imposing  a  duty,  to  provide  for 
any  such  exemption,  and  any  provision  of  a  byelaw  provid- 
ing for  any  such  exemption,  shall  cease  to  have  effect, 
without  prejudice  to  any  exemptions  already  granted. 
Any  byelaw  which  names  a  lower  age  than  fourteen  as  the 
age  up  to  which  a  parent  shall  cause  his  child  to  attend 
school  shall  have  effect  as  if  the  age  of  fourteen  were  sub- 
stituted for  that  lower  age. 

(2)  In  section  seventy-four  of  the  Elementary  Educa- 
tion Act,  1870,  as  amended  by  section  six  of  the  Elementary 
Education  Act,  1900,  fifteen  years  shall  be  substituted  for 
fourteen  years  as  the  maximum  age  up  to  which  byelaws 
relating  to  school  attendance  may  require  parents  to  cause 
their  children  to  attend  school,  and  any  such  byelaw  re- 
quiring attendance  at  school  of  children  between  the  ages 
of  fourteen  and  fifteen  may  apply  either  generally  to  all 
such  children,  or  to  children  other  than  those  employed 
in  any  specified  occupations  : 

Provided  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  a  local  education 
authority  to  grant  exemption  from  the  obligation  to  attend 
school  to  individual  children  between  the  ages  of  fourteen 
and  fifteen  for  such  time  and  upon  such  conditions  as  the 
authority  think  fit  in  any  case  where  after  due  inquiry  the 
circumstances  seem  to  justify  such  an  exemption. 
I*'  (3)  It  shall  not  be  a  defence  to  proceedings  relating  to 
school  attendance  under  the  Education  Acts  or  any  bye- 
laws  made  thereunder  that  a  child  is  attending  a  school  or 


63  A  64  Viet, 
c.  53. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      281 

institution  providing  efficient  elementary  instruction  unless     A.D.  1918. 

the  school  or  institution  is  open  to  inspection  either  by  the  

local  education  authority  or  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
and  unless  satisfactory  registers  are  kept  of  the  attendance 
of  the  scholars  thereat. 

(4)  A  local  education  authority  may  with  the  approval 
of  the  Board  of  Education  make  a  byelaw  under  section 
seventy-four   of   the   Elementary   Education   Act,    1870, 
providing  that  parents  shall  not  be  required  to  cause  their 
children  to  attend  school  or  to  receive  efficient  elementary 
instruction  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  before  the 
age  of  six  years  : 

Provided  that  in  considering  any  such  byelaw  the  Board 
shall  have  regard  to  the  adequacy  of  the  provision  of  nurs- 
ery schools  for  the  area  to  which  the  byelaw  relates,  and 
shall,  if  requested  by  any  ten  parents  of  children  attending 
public  elementary  schools  for  that  area,  hold  a  public 
inquiry  for  the  purpose  of  determining  whether  the  byelaw 
should  be  approved. 

(5)  Notwithstanding  anything  in  the  Education  Acts  the 
Board  of  Education  may,  on  the  application  of  the  local 
education  authority,  authorise  the  instruction  of  children 
in  public  elementary  schools  till  the  end  of  the  school  term 
in  which  they  reach  the  age  of  sixteen  or  (in  special  cir- 
cumstances) such  later  age  as  appears  to  the  Board  desir- 
able: 

Provided  that,  in  considering  such  application,  the 
Board  shall  have  regard  to  the  adequacy  and  suitability 
of  the  arrangements  made  by  the  authority  under  para- 
graphs (a)  and  (c)  of  subsection  (1)  of  section  two  of  this 
Act  and  to  the  effective  development  and  organisation  of  all 
forms  of  education  in  the  area,  and  to  any  representations 
made  by  the  managers  of  schools. 

(6)  The  power  of  a  local  education  authority  under 
section  seven  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  to  give  directions 
as  to  secular  instruction  shall  include  the  power  to  direct 
that  any  child  in  attendance  at  a  public  elementary  school 
shall  attend  during  such  hours  as  may  be  directed  by  the 
authority  at  any  class,  whether  conducted  on  the  school 
premises  or  not,  for  the  purpose  of  practical  or  special  in- 


282      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.D.  1918.  stmction  or  demonstration,  and  attendance  at  such  a  class 
shall,  where  the  local  education  authority  so  direct,  be 
deemed  for  the  purpose  of  any  enactment  or  byelaw  re- 
lating to  school  attendance  to  be  attendance  at  a  public 
elementary  school : 

Provided  that,  if  by  reason  of  any  such  direction  a  child 
is  prevented  on  any  day  from  receiving  religious  instruc- 
tion in  the  school  at  the  ordinary  time  mentioned  in  the 
time-table,  reasonable  facilities  shall  be  afforded,  subject 
to  the  provisions  of  section  seven  of  the  Elementary  Edu- 
cation Act,  1870,  for  enabling  such  child  to  receive  religious 
instruction  in  the  school  at  some  other  time. 

39  A  40  Viet.  (7)  In  section  eleven  of  the  Elementary  Education  Act, 
1876,  (which  relates  to  school  attendance)  for  the  words 
"there  is  not  within  two  miles"  there  shall  be  substituted 
the  words  "there  is  not  within  such  distance  as  may  be 
prescribed  by  the  byelaws." 

56  4  57  Viet.        (8)  Nothing  in  this  section  shall  affect  the  provisions  of 
c-  42'  the  Elementary  Education  (Blind  and  Deaf  Children)  Act, 

1893,  or  the  Elementary  Education  (Defective  and  Epilep- 
tic Children)  Acts,  1899  to  1914,  relating  to  the  attendance 
at  school  of  the  children  to  whom  those  Acts  apply. 

ProYiaions  9.  —  (1)  If  a  child  who  is  attending  or  is  about  to  attend 

for  avoid-         ft  pujjijc  elementary  school  or  a  school  certified  by  the 
broken  Board   of   Education   under  the   Elementary   Education 

school  terms.  (Blind  and  Deaf  Children)  Act,  1893,  or  the  Elementary 
Education  (Defective  and  Epileptic  Children)  Acts,  1899 
to  1914,  attains  any  year  of  age  during  the  school  term,  the 
child  shall  not,  for  the  purpose  of  any  enactment  or  byelaw, 
whether  made  before  or  after  the  passing  of  this  Act,  re- 
lating to  school  attendance,  be  deemed  to  have  attained 
that  year  of  age  until  the  end  of  the  term. 

(2)  The  local  education  authority  for  the  purposes  of 
Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  may  make  regula- 
tions with  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Education  provid- 
ing that  a  child  may,  in  such  cases  as  are  prescribed  by  the 
regulations,  be  refused  admission  to  a  public  elementary 
school  or  such  certified  school  as  aforesaid  except  at  the 
commencement  of  a  school  term. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      283 

10.  —  (1)  Subject  as  hereinafter  provided,  all  young     A.D.  1918. 
persons  shall  attend  such  continuation  schools  at  such 

times,  on  such  days,  as  the  local  education  authority  of  the   Compulsory 

i_         -L  attendance 

area  in  which  they  reside  may  require,  for  three  hundred   at  continua- 

and  twenty  hours  in  each  year,  distributed  as  regards  times   tion  schools, 
and  seasons  as  may  best  suit  the  circumstances  of  each 
locality,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  period  of  less  than  a  year,  for 
such  number  of  hours  distributed  as  aforesaid  as  the  local 
education  authority,  having  regard  to  all  the  circumstances, 
consider  reasonable : 
Provided  that  — 

(a)  the  obligation  to  attend  continuation  schools  shall 
not,  within  a  period  of  seven  years  from  the 
appointed  day  on  which  the  provisions  of  this 
section  come  into  force,  apply  to  young  persons 
between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  eighteen,  nor 
after  that  period  to  any  young  person  who  has 
attained  the  age  of  sixteen  before  the  expiration 
of  that  period ;  and 

(6)  during  the  like  period,  if  the  local  education 
authority  so  resolve,  the  number  of  hours  for 
which  a  young  person  may  be  required  to  attend 
continuation  schools  in  any  year  shall  be  two 
hundred  and  eighty  instead  of  three  hundred 
and  twenty. 

(2)  Any  young  person  — 

(i)  who  is  above  the  age  of  fourteen  years  on  the  ap- 
pointed day ;  or 

(ii)  who  has  satisfactorily  completed  a  course  of  train- 
ing for,  and  is  engaged  in,  the  sea  service,  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  any  national 
scheme  which  may  hereafter  be  established,  by 
Order  in  Council  or  otherwise,  with  the  object 
of  maintaining  an  adequate  supply  of  well- 
trained  British  seamen,  or,  pending  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  scheme,  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  any  interim  scheme  approved  by 
the  Board  of  Education ;  or 

(iii)  who  is  above  the  age  of  sixteen  years  and  either — 
(a)  has  passed  the  matriculation  examina- 
tion of  a  university  of  the  United  Kingdom  or 


284      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.  D.  1918  an  examination  recognised  by  the  Board  of 

Education  for  the  purposes  of  this  section  aa 

equivalent  thereto ;  or 

(6)  is  shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  local 
education  authority  to  have  been  up  to  the 
age  of  sixteen  under  full-time  instruction  in  a 
school  recognised  by  the  Board  of  Education 
as  efficient  or  under  suitable  and  efficient  full- 
time  instruction  in  some  other  manner, 
shall  be  exempt  from  the  obligation  to  attend  continuation 
schools  under  this  Act  unless  he  has  informed  the  authority 
in  writing  of  his  desire  to  attend  such  schools  and  the 
authority  have  prescribed  what  school  he  shall  attend. 

(3)  The  obligation  to  attend  continuation  schools  under 
this  Act  shall  not  apply  to  any  young  person  — 

(i)  who  is  shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  local  education 
authority  to  be  under  full-time  instruction  in  a 
school  recognised  by  the  Board  of  Education  as 
efficient  or  to  be  under  suitable  and  efficient  full- 
time  instruction  in  some  other  manner ;  or 
(ii)  who  is  shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  local  educa- 
tion authority  to  be  under  suitable  and  efficient 
part-time  instruction  in  some  other  manner  for  a 
number  of  hours  in  the  year  (being  hours  during 
which  if  not  exempted  he  might  be  required  to 
attend  continuation  schools)  equal  to  the  number 
of  hours  during  which  a  young  person  is  required 
under  this  Act  to  attend  a  continuation  school. 

(4)  Where  a  school  supplying  secondary  education  is 
inspected  by  a  British  university,  or  in  Wales  or  Mon- 
mouthshire by  the  Central  Welsh  Board,  under  regulations 
made  by  the  inspecting  body  after  consultation  with  the 
Board  of  Education,  and  the  inspecting  body  reports  to 
the  Board  of  Education  that  the  school  makes  satisfactory 
provision  for  the  education  of  the  scholars,  a  young  person 
who  is  attending,  or  has  attended,  such  a  school  shall  for 
the  purposes  of  this  section  be  treated  as  if  he  were  attend- 
ing, or  had  attended,  a  school  recognised  by  the  Board 
of  Education  as  efficient. 

(5)  If  a  young  person  who  is  or  has  been  in  any  school  or 
educational  institution,  or  the  parent  of  any  such  young 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      285 

person,  represents  to  the  Board  that  the  young  person  is  en-  A.D.  1918. 
titled  to  exemption  under  the  provisions  of  this  section, 
or  that  the  obligation  imposed  by  this  section  does  not 
apply  to  him,  by  reason  that  he  is  or  has  been  under  suit- 
able and  efficient  instruction,  but  that  the  local  education 
authority  have  unreasonably  refused  to  accept  the  instruc- 
tion as  satisfactory,  the  Board  of  Education  shall  consider 
the  representation,  and,  if  satisfied  that  the  representation 
is  well  founded,  shall  make  an  order  declaring  that  the 
young  person  is  exempt  from  the  obligation  to  attend  a 
continuation  school  under  this  Act  for  such  period  and 
subject  to  such  conditions  as  may  be  named  in  the  order : 
Provided  that  the  Board  of  Education  may  refuse  to 
consider  any  such  representation  unless  the  local  education 
authority  or  the  Board  of  Education  are  enabled  to  inspect 
the  school  or  educational  institution  in  which  the  instruc- 
tion is  or  has  been  given. 

(6)  The  local  education  authority  may  require,  in  the 
case  of  any  young  person  who  is  under  an  obligation  to 
attend  a  continuation  school,  that  his  employment  shall  be 
suspended  on  any  day  when  his  attendance  is  required, 
not  only  during  the  period  for  which  he  is  required  to  at- 
tend the  school,  but  also  for  such  other  specified  part  of 
the  day,  not  exceeding  two  hours,  as  the  authority  con- 
sider necessary  in  order  to  secure  that  he  may  be  in  a  fit 
mental  and  bodily  condition  to  receive  full  benefit  from 
attendance  at  the  school :  Provided  that,  if  any  question 
arises  between  the  local  education  authority  and  the  em- 
ployer of  a  young  person  whether  a  requirement  made 
under  this  subsection  is  reasonable  for  the  purposes  afore- 
said, that  question  shall  be  determined  by  the  Board  of 
Education,  and,  if  the  Board  of  Education  determine  that 
the  requirement  is  unreasonable,  they  may  substitute  such 
other  requirement  as  they  think  reasonable. 

(7)  The  local  education  authority  shall  not  require  any 
young  person  to  attend  a  continuation  school  on  a  Sunday, 
or  on  any  day  or  part  of  a  day  exclusively  set  apart  for 
religious  observance  by  the  religious  body  to  which  he 
belongs,  or  during  any  holiday  or  half-holiday  to  which  by 
any  enactment  regulating  his  employment  or  by  agree- 
ment he  is  entitled,  nor  so  far  as  practicable  during  any 


286      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.D.  1918.  holiday  or  half-holiday  which  in  his  employment  he  is  ac- 
customed to  enjoy,  nor  between  the  hours  of  seven  in  the 
evening  and  eight  in  the  morning :  Provided  that  the  local 
education  authority  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Board, 
vary  those  hours  in  the  case  of  young  persons  employed 
at  night  or  otherwise  employed  at  abnormal  times. 

(8)  A  local  education  authority  shall  not,  without  the 
consent  of  a  young  person,  require  him  to  attend  any  con- 
tinuation school  held  at  or  in  connection  with  the  place  of 
his  employment.     The  consent  given  by  a  young  person 
for  the  purpose  of  this  provision  may  be  withdrawn  by  one 
month's  notice  in  writing  sent  to  the  employer  and  to  the 
local  education  authority. 

Any  school  attended  by  a  young  person  at  or  in  connec- 
tion with  the  place  of  his  employment  shall  be  open  to 
inspection  either  by  the  local  education  authority  or  by 
the  Board  of  Education  at  the  option  of  the  person  or  per- 
sons responsible  for  the  management  of  the  school. 

(9)  In  considering  what  continuation  school  a  young 
person  shall  be  required  to  attend  a  local  education  author- 
ity shall  have  regard,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  any  prefer- 
ence which  a  young  person  or  the  parent  of  a  young  person 
under  the  age  of  sixteen  may  express,  and,  if  a  young  per- 
son or  the  parent  of  a  young  person  under  the  age  of  six- 
teen represents  in  writing  to  the  local  education  authority 
that  he  objects  to  any  part  of  the  instruction  given  in  the 
continuation  school  which  the  young  person  is  required 
to  attend,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  contrary  or  offensive 
to  his  religious  belief,  the  obligation  under  this  Act  to  at- 
tend that  school  for  the  purpose  of  such  instruction  shall 
not  .apply  to  him,  and  the  local  education  authority  shall, 
if  practicable,  arrange  for  him  to  attend  some  other  in- 
struction in  lieu  thereof  or  some  other  school. 

Enforcement  11.  —  (1)  If  a  young  person  fails,  except  by  reason  of 
of  attend-  sickness  or  other  unavoidable  cause,  to  comply  with  any 
continuation  requirement  imposed  upon  him  under  this  Act  for  attend- 
Bchools.  ance  at  a  continuation  school,  he  shall  be  liable  on  summary 

conviction  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  five  shillings,  or,  in  the 
case  of  a  second  or  subsequent  offence,  to  a  fine  not  ex- 
ceeding one  pound. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OP  1918     287 

(1)  If  a  parent  of  a  young  person  has  conduced  to  or     A.D.  1918. 
connived  at  the  failure  on  the  part  of  the  young  person  to 

attend  a  continuation  school  as  required  under  this  Act,  he 

C.  O/, 

shall,  unless  an  order  has  been  made  against  him  in  respect 
of  such  failure  under  section  ninety-nine  of  the  Children 
Act,  1908,  be  liable  on  summary  conviction  to  a  fine  not 
exceeding  two  pounds,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  second  or  subse- 
quent offence,  whether  relating  to  the  same  or  another 
young  person,  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  five  pounds. 

12.  —  (1)  The  Board  of  Education  may  from  time  to   Adminiatra- 
time  make  regulations  prescribing  the  manner  and  form    ~7?  pro~ 

in  which  notice  is  to  be  given  as  to  the  continuation  school    relating  to 
(if  any)  which  a  young  person  is  required  to  attend,  and    continuation 
the  times  of  attendance  thereat,  and  as  to  the  hours  during 
which  his  employment  must  be  suspended,  and  providing 
for  the  issue  of  certificates  of  age,  attendance  and  exemp- 
tion, and  for  the  keeping  and  preservation  of  registers  of 
attendance,  and  generally  for  carrying  into  effect  the  pro- 
visions of  this  Act  relating  to  continuation  schools. 

(2)  For  the  purposes  of  the  provisions  of  this  Act  relat- 
ing to  continuation  schools,  the  expression  "year"  means 
in  the  case  of  any  young  person  the  period  of  twelve  months 
reckoned  from  the  date  when  he  ceased  to  be  a  child,  or 
any  subsequent  period  of  twelve  months. 

13.  —  (1)  The  Employment  of  Children  Act,  1908,  so    Amendment 

far  as  it  relates  to  England  and  Wales,  shall  be  amended   o{  ?-Ed_w'  7' 

c.  45.  & 

as  follows  :  —  4  Edw.  7. 

(i)  For  subsection  (1)  of    section  three  the  following   c-  15- 
subsection  shall  be  substituted  :  — 

"A  child  under  the  age  of  twelve  shall  not  be 
employed ;  and  a  child  of  the  age  of  twelve  or 
upwards  shall  not  be  employed  on  any  Sunday 
for  more  than  two  hours,  or  on  any  day  on  which 
he  is  required  to  attend  school  before  the  close 
of  school  hours  on  that  day,  nor  on  any  day 
before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  or  after  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening : 

"  Provided  that  a  local  authority  may  make  a 
byelaw  permitting,  with  respect  to  such  occu- 
pations as  may  be  specified,  and  subject  to  such 


288      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.D.  1918.  conditions  as  may  be  necessary  to  safeguard 

the  interests  of  the  children,  the  employment 

of  children  of  the  age  of  twelve  or  upwards  be- 
fore school  hours  and  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren by  their  parents,  but  so  that  any  employ- 
ment permitted  by  byelaw  on  a  school  day  be- 
fore nine  in  the  morning  shall  be  limited  to  one 
hour,  and  that  if  a  child  is  so  employed  before 
nine  in  the  morning  he  shall  not  be  employed  for 
more  than  one  hour  in  the  afternoon." 
(ii)  In  subsection  (2)  of  section  three,  which  prohibits 
the  employment  of  a  child  under  the  age  of  eleven 
years  in  street  trading,  the  words  "  under  the  age 
of  eleven  years"  shall  be  repealed : 
(iii)  For  section  twelve  the  following  section  shall   be 
substituted :  — 

"Except  as  regards  the  City  of  London,  the 
powers  and  duties  of  a  local  authority  under 
this  Act  shall  be  deemed  to  be  powers  and  duties 
under  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902, 
and  the  provisions  of  the  Education  Acts  for  the 
time  being  in  force  with  regard  to  those  powers 
and  duties  and  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
expenses  of  an  authority  under  that  Part  of 
that  Act  shall  be  paid  shall  apply  accord- 
ingly": 

(iv)  For  the  definition  of  the  expression  "local  author- 
ity" there  shall  be  substituted  the  following 
definition :  — 

"The  expression  'local  authority'  means  in 
the  case  of  the  City  of  London  the  mayor, 
aldermen,  and  commons  of  that  city  in  common 
council  assembled  and  elsewhere  the  local 
education  authority  for  the  purposes  of  Part 
III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902." 

(2)  The  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children  Act,  1904, 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  England  and  Wales,  shall  be  amended 
as  follows :  — 

(i)  In  paragraph  (6)  of  section  two,  which  restricts  the 
employment  of  boys  under  the  age  of  fourteen 
years  and  of  girls  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      289 

for  the  purpose  of  singing,  playing  or  performing,     A.D.  1918. 

or  being  exhibited  for  profit,  or  offering  anything 

for  sale,  between  nine  P.M.  and  six  A.M.,  "eight 

P.M."  shall   be  substituted   for  "nine  P.M."  so 

far  as  relates  to  children  under  fourteen  years 

of  age : 

(ii)  In  paragraph  (c)  of  section  two,  which  restricts  the 
employment  of  children  under  eleven  years  for 
the  purpose  of  singing,  playing  or  performing, 
or  being  exhibited  for  profit,  or  offering  anything 
for  sale,  twelve  years  shall  be  substituted  for 
eleven  years : 

(iii)  In  section  three,  which  relates  to  licences  for  the 
employment  of  children  exceeding  ten  years  of 
age,  the  age  of  twelve  years  shall  be  substituted 
for  the  age  of  ten  years : 

(iv)  A  licence  under  section  three  to  take  part  in  any 
entertainment  or  series  of  entertainments,  in- 
stead of  being  granted,  varied,  added  to,  or 
rescinded  as  provided  by  that  section,  shall  be 
granted  by  the  local  education  authority  for  the 
purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902, 
of  the  area  in  which  the  child  resides,  subject  to 
such  restrictions  and  conditions  as  are  prescribed 
by  rules  made  by  the  Board  of  Education,  and 
may  be  rescinded  by  the  authority  of  any  area  in 
which  it  takes  effect  or  is  about  to  take  effect 
if  the  restrictions  and  conditions  of  the  licence 
are  not  observed,  and,  subject  as  aforesaid,  may 
be  varied  or  added  to  by  that  authority  at  the 
request  of  the  holder  of  the  licence  : 
(v)  The  holder  of  a  licence  shall  at  least  seven  days 
before  a  child  takes  part  in  any  entertainment  or 
series  of  entertainments  furnish  the  local  educa- 
tion authority  of  the  area  in  which  the  entertain- 
ment is  to  take  place  with  particulars  of  the 
licence  and  such  other  information  as  the  Board 
of  Education  may  by  rules  prescribe,  and  if  he 
fails  to  furnish  such  particulars  and  information 
as  aforesaid  he  shall  be  liable  on  summary  con- 
viction to  a  fine  not  exceeding  five  pounds : 
u 


290      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Prohibition 
against  em- 
ployment of 
children  in 
factories, 
workshops, 
mines,  and 
quarries. 
1  A  2  Geo.  5. 
c.  50. 

35  &  36  Viet. 
c.  77. 

38  A  39  Viet. 
c.  39. 


Further 
restrictions 
on  employ- 
ment of 
children. 


(vi)  Subsections  (3)  and  (4)  of  section  three  shall  cease 
to  apply  with  respect  to  licences  to  take  part  in 
an  entertainment  or  series  of  entertainments : 

(vii)  If  the  applicant  for  a  licence  or  a  person  to  whom  a 
licence  has  been  granted  feels  aggrieved  by  any 
decision  of  a  local  education  authority,  he  may 
appeal  to  the  Board  of  Education,  who  may 
thereupon  exercise  any  of  the  powers  conferred 
on  the  local  education  authority  by  this  section : 

(viii)  The  provisions  of  this  subsection  shall  not  apply 

to  any  licence  in  force  on  the  appointed  day : 
(ix)  References  to  the  Employment  of  Children  Act, 
1903,  shall  be  construed  as  references  to  that 
Act  as  amended  by  this  Act. 

14.  No  child  within  the  meaning  of  this  Act  shall  be 
employed  — 

(a)  in  any  factory  or  workshop  to  which  the  Factory 

and  Workshop  Acts,  1901  to  1911,  apply;   or 
(6)  in  any  mine  to  which  the  Coal  Mines  Act,  1911, 

applies;  or 
(c)   in  any  mine  or  quarry  to  which  the  Metalliferous 

Mines  Acts,  1872  and  1875,  apply; 

unless  lawfully  so  employed  on  the  appointed  day;  and 
those  Acts  respectively  shall  have  effect  as  respects  England 
and  Wales  as  if  this  provision,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
subject-matter  thereof,  was  incorporated  therewith. 

16.  —  (1)  The  local  education  authority,  if  they  are 
satisfied  by  a  report  of  the  school  medical  officer  or  other- 
wise that  any  child  is  being  employed  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  prejudicial  to  his  health  or  physical  development,  or 
to  render  him  unfit  to  obtain  the  proper  benefit  from  his 
education,  may  either  prohibit,  or  attach  such  conditions 
as  they  think  fit  to,  his  employment  in  that  or  any  other 
manner,  notwithstanding  that  the  employment  may  be 
authorised  under  the  other  provisions  of  this  Act  or  any 
other  enactment. 

(2)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  employer  and  the  parent 
of  any  child  who  is  in  employment,  if  required  by  the  local 
education  authority,  to  furnish  to  the  authority  such  infor- 
mation as  to  his  employment  as  the  authority  may  require, 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      291 

and,  if  the  parent  or  employer  falls  to  comply  with  any     A.D.  1918. 
requirement  of  the  local  education  authority  or  wilfully          — ' 
gives  false  information  as  to  the  employment,  he  shall  be 
liable  on  summary  conviction  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  forty 
shillings. 

16.    If  any  person  —  Penalties  on 

(a)  employs  a  child  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent   "I68*1  ein" 

ployment  of 
the  child  from  attending  school  according  to  the    children  and 

Education  Acts  and  the  byelaws  in  force  in  the    youns  per- 
sons, 
district  in  which  the  child  resides ;  or 

(6)  having  received  notice  of  any  prohibition  or  re- 
striction as  to  the  employment  of  a  child  issued 
by  a  local  education  authority  under  this  Act, 
employs  a  child  in  such  a  manner  as  to  contra- 
vene the  prohibition  or  restriction ;  or 

(c)  employs  a  young  person  in  such  a  manner  as  to 

prevent  the  young  person  attending  a  continua- 
tion school  which  he  is  required  to  attend  under 
this  Act ;  or 

(d)  employs  a  young  person  at  any  time  when,  in 

pursuance  of  any  requirement  under  this  Act 
issued  by  a  local  education  authority,  the  em- 
ployment of  that  young  person  must  be  sus- 
pended ; 

he  shall  be  deemed  to  have  employed  the  child  or  young 
person  in  contravention  of  the  Employment  of  Children 
Act,  1903,  and  subsections  (1)  and  (2)  of  section  five  and 
section  six  and  section  eight  of  that  Act  shall  apply  accord- 
ingly as  if  they  were  herein  re-enacted  and  in  terms  made 
applicable  to  children  and  young  persons  within  the  mean- 
ing of  this  Act  as  well  as  to  children  within  the  meaning 
of  that  Act. 


Extension  of  Powers  and  Duties. 

17.   For  the  purpose  of  supplementing  and  reinforcing  Power  to 

the  instruction  and  social  and  physical  training  provided  go°™i°an(j 

by  the  public  system  of  education,  and  without  prejudice  physical 

to  any  other  powers,  a  local  education  authority  for  the  tramin*- 
purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  as  respects 
children  attending  public  elementary  schools,  and  a  local 


292      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 

A.D.  1918.  education  authority  for  the  purposes  of  Part  II.  of  that 
Act  as  respects  other  children  and  young  persons  and  per- 
sons over  the  age  of  eighteen  attending  educational  institu- 
tions, may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
make  arrangements  to  supply  or  maintain  or  aid  the  supply 
or  maintenance  of  — 

(a)  holiday  or  school  camps,  especially  for  young  per- 
sons attending  continuation  schools ; 

(6)  centres  and  equipment  for  physical  training,  play- 
ing fields  (other  than  the  ordinary  playgrounds 
of  public  elementary  schools  not  provided  by  the 
local  education  authority),  school  baths,  school 
swimming  baths ; 

(c)  other  facilities  for  social  and  physical  training  in 
the  day  or  evening. 

Medical  in-  18.  —  (1)  The  local  education  authority  for  the  pur- 

schools  and       poses  of  Part  II.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  shall  have  the 
educational       same  duties  and  powers  with  reference  to  making  provision 
institutions.      for  j.Qe  n^d^i  inspection  and  treatment  of  children  and 
young  persons  attending  — 

(i)  secondary  schools  provided  by  them ; 

52  &  53  Viet.         (ii)  any  school  to  the  governing  body  of  which,  in  pur- 
c-  40-  suance  of  any  scheme  made  under  the  Welsh  Inter- 

mediate Education  Act,  1889,  any  payments  are 
made  out  of  any  general  fund  administered  by  a  lo- 
cal education  authority  as  a  governing  body  under 
that  Act,  and  any  school  of  which  a  local  educa- 
tion authority  are  the  governing  body  under  that 
Act; 

(iii)  continuation  schools  under  their  direction  and  con- 
trol; and 

(iv)  such  other  schools  or  educational  institutions  (not 
being  elementary  schools)  provided  by  them  as 
the  Board  direct ; 

as  a  local  education  authority  for  the  purposes  of  Part  III. 
of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  have  under  paragraph  (6)  of 
subsection  (1)  of  section  thirteen  of  the  Education  (Ad- 
ministrative Provisions)  Act,  1907,  with  reference  to  chil- 
dren attending  public  elementary  schools,  and  may  exer- 
cise the  like  powers  as  respects  children  and  young  persons 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      293 

attending  any  school  or  educational  institution,  whether     A.D.  1918. 

aided  by  them  or  not,  if  so  requested  by  or  on  behalf  of 

the  persons  having  the  management  thereof.  9  Edw.  7. 

(2)  The  Local  Education  Authorities  (Medical  Treat- 
ment) Act,  1909,  shall  apply  where  any  medical  treat- 
ment is  given  in  pursuance  of  this  section  as  it  applies  to 
treatment  given  in  pursuance  of  section  thirteen  of  the 
Education  (Administrative  Provisions)  Act,  1907. 

19.  —  (1)  The  powers  of  local  education  authorities  for   Nursery 
the  purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  shall   schools- 
include  power  to  make  arrangements  for  — 

(a)  supplying  or  aiding  the  supply  of  nursery  schools 
(which  expression  shall  include  nursery  classes) 
for  children  over  two  and  under  five  years  of  age, 
or  such  later  age  as  may  be  approved  by  the 
Board  of  Education,  whose  attendance  at  such  a 
school  is  necessary  or  desirable  for  their  healthy 
physical  and  mental  development  ;  and 
(6)  attending  to  the  health,  nourishment,  and  physical 

welfare  of  children  attending  nursery  schools. 
(2)  Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  any  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment the  Board  of  Education  may,  out  of  moneys  pro- 
vided by  Parliament,  pay  grants  in  aid  of  nursery  schools, 
provided  that  such  grants  shall  not  be  paid  in  respect  of 
any  such  school  unless  it  is  open  to  inspection  by  the  local 
education  authority,  and  unless  that  authority  are  enabled 
to  appoint  representatives  on  the  body  of  managers  to  the 
extent  of  at  least  one-third  of  the  total  number  of  managers, 
and  before  recognising  any  nursery  school  the  Board  shall 
consult  the  local  education  authority. 

20.  —  A  local  education  authority  shall  make  arrange-   Education  of 


ments  under  the  Elementary  Education  (Defective  and 

.    .         defective 
Epileptic  Children)  Acts,  1899  to  1914,  for  ascertaining    and  epileptic 

what  children  in  their  area  are  physically  defective  or   children. 

•i     x-       -^-     ^  •         *  *!_         »  4  &  5 

epileptic  within  the  meaning  of  those  Acts,  and  the  pro-   c  45 

visions  of  the  Elementary  Education  (Defective  and 
Epileptic  Children)  Act,  1914,  relating  to  mentally  defec- 
tive children,  shall  be  extended  so  as  to  apply  to  physically 
defective  and  epileptic  children,  and  accordingly  that  Act 
shall  have  effect  as  if  references  therein  to  mentally  de- 


294      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Powers  for 
the  educa- 
tion of 
children  in 
exceptional 
circum- 
stances. 


Amendment 
of   Education 
(Choice  of 
Employ- 
ment) Act, 
1910. 

10  Edw.  7. 
and  1  Geo.  5. 
c.37. 

Power  to 
aid  research. 


Provision  of 
maintenance 
allowances. 


fective  children  included  references  to  physically  defec- 
tive and  epileptic  children. 

21.  Where  a  local  education  authority  for  the  purposes 
of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  are  satisfied  in  the 
case  of  any  children  that,  owing  to  the  remoteness  of  their 
homes  or  the  conditions  under  which  the  children  are  living, 
or  other  exceptional  circumstances  affecting  the  children, 
those  children  are  not  in  a  position  to  receive  the  full  bene- 
fit of  education  by  means  of  the  ordinary  provision  made 
for  the  purpose  by  the  authority,  the  authority  may,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Education,  make  such  arrange- 
ments, either  of  a  permanent  or  temporary  character,  and 
including  the  provision  of  board  and  lodging,  as  they  think 
best  suited  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  those  children  to  re- 
ceive the  benefit  of  efficient  elementary  education,  and  may 
for  that   purpose   enter   into   such   agreement   with   the 
parent  of  any  such  child  as  they  think  proper : 

Provided  that  where  a  child  is  boarded  out  in  pursuance 
of  this  section  the  local  education  authority  shall,  if  pos- 
sible, and,  if  the  parent  so  requests,  arrange  for  the  board- 
ing out  being  with  a  person  belonging  to  the  religious  per- 
suasion of  the  child's  parents. 

22.  Section  one  of  the  Education  (Choice  of  Employ- 
ment) Act,  1910,  which  confers  on  certain  local  education 
authorities  the  power  of  assisting  boys  and  girls  with  re- 
spect to  the  choice  of  employment,  shall  have  effect  as  if 
"eighteen   years   of   age"   were   therein   substituted   for 
"seventeen  years  of  age." 

23.  With  a  view  to  promoting  the  efficiency  of  teaching 
and  advanced  study,  a  local  education  authority  for  the 
purposes  of  Part  II.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  may  aid 
teachers  and  students  to  carry  on  any  investigation  for  the 
advancement  of  learning  or  research  in  or  in  connection  with 
an  educational  institution,  and  with  that  object  may  aid 
educational  institutions. 

24.  It  is  hereby  declared  that  the  powers  as  to  the  provi- 
sion of  scholarships  conferred  by  subsection  (2)  of  section 
twenty-three  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  and  by  section 
eleven  of  the  Education  (Administrative  Provisions)  Act, 
1907,  include  a  power  to  provide  allowances  for  niainte- 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      295 

25.  —  A  local  education  authority  shall  not,  in  exercise     A.D.  1918. 
of  the  powers  conferred  upon  them  by  paragraph  (b)  of  sub- 

section (1)  of  section  thirteen  of  the  Education  (Adminis-    Provisions 
trative  Provisions)  Act,  1907,  or  by  this  Act,  establish  a    treatment. 
general  domiciliary  service  of  treatment  by  medical  prac- 
titioners for  children  or  young  persons,  and  in  making  ar- 
rangements for  the  treatment  of  children  and  young  persona 
a  local  education  authority  shall  consider  how  far  they  can 
avail  themselves  of  the  services  of  private  medical  practi- 
tioners. 

Abolition  of  Fees  in  Public  Elementary  Schools. 

26.  —  (1)  No  fees  shall  be  charged  or  other  charges  of  Abolition 
any  kind  made  in  any  public  elementary  school,  except  as       r:?8  in 
provided  by  the  Education  (Provision  of  Meals)  Act,  1906,  mentary 
and  the  Local  Education  Authorities  (Medical  Treatment)  schools- 
Act,  1909.  c.  57W- 


(2)  During  a  period  of  five  years  from  the  appointed  day   ®  ^w'  7> 
the  Board  of  Education  shall  in  each  year,  out  of  moneys 
provided  by  Parliament,  pay  to  the  managers  of  a  school 
maintained  but  not  provided  by  a  local  education  authority 

in  which  fees  were  charged  immediately  before  the  ap- 
pointed day,  the  average  yearly  sum  paid  to  the  managers 
under  section  fourteen  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  during 
the  five  years  immediately  preceding  the  appointed  day. 

(3)  Nothing  in  this  Act  shall  affect  the  provisions  of 
section  nine  of  the  Elementary  Education  (Blind  and  Deaf 
Children)  Act,  1893,  or  of  section  eight  of  the  Elementary    62  A  63  Viet. 
Education  (Defective  and  Epileptic  Children)  Act,  1899.      c.  32. 

Administrative  Provisions. 

27.   If  the  governing  body  of  any  school  or  educational    Vo'uatwy 

°  inspection 

institution  not  liable  to  inspection  by  any  Government   Of  schools. 

department,  or,  if  there  is  no  governing  body,  the  head- 

master, requests  the  Board  of  Education  to  inspect  the 

school  or  institution  and  to  report  thereon,  the  Board  of 

Education  may  do  so,  if  they  think  fit,  free  of  cost  ;    but 

this  section  shall  be  without  prejudice  to  the  provisions 

relating  to  the  Central  Welsh  Board  contained  in  subsec- 

tion (1)  of  section  three  of  the  Board  of  Education  Act,    62  &  63  Viet. 

1899.  c-  33' 


296      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 


A.D.  1918. 

Collection 
of  informa- 
tion respect- 
ing schools. 


28.  —  (1)  In  order  that  full  information  may  be  avail- 
able as  to  the  provision  for  education  and  the  use  made  of 
such  provision  in  England  and  Wales,  — 

(a)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  responsible  person  as 
hereinafter  defined,  in  respect  of  every  school  or 
educational  institution  not  in  receipt  of  grants 
from  the  Board  of  Education,  to  furnish  to  the 
Board  of  Education  in  a  form  prescribed  by  the 
Board  — 

(i)  in  the  case  of  a  school  or  educational  insti- 
tution existing  at  the  appointed  day,  within 
three  months  of  that  day ; 

(ii)  in  the  case  of  a  school  or  educational 
institution   opened   after   the   appointed   day, 
within  three  months  of  the  opening  thereof ; 
the  name  and  address  of  the  school  or  institution 
and  a  short  description  of  the  school  or  institu- 
tion: 

(6)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  such  responsible  person 
when  required  by  the  Board  of  Education  to  fur- 
nish to  the  Board  such  further  particulars  with 
respect  to  the  school  or  institution  as  may  be 
prescribed  by  regulations  made  by  the  Board  : 
Provided  that  the  Board  may  exempt  from  both  or  either 
of  the  above  obligations  any  schools  or  educational  insti- 
tutions with  respect  to  which  the  necessary  information 
is  already  in  the  possession  of  the  Board  or  is  otherwise 
available. 

(2)  If  the  responsible  person  fails  to  furnish  any  infor- 
mation required  by  this  section,  he  shall  be  liable  on  sum- 
mary conviction  to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  ten  pounds, 
and  to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  five  pounds  for  every  day 
on  which  the  failure  continues  after  conviction  therefor. 

(3)  For  the  purposes  of  this  section  "the  responsible 
person"  means  the  secretary  or  person  performing  the  duty 
of  secretary  to  the  governing  body  of  the  school  or  institu- 
tion, or,  if  there  is  no  governing  body,  the  headmaster  or 
person  responsible  for  the  management  of  the  school  or 
institution. 

(4)  Any  regulations  made  by  the  Board  of  Education 
under  this  section  with  respect  to  the  particulars  to  be 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      297 

furnished  shall  be  laid  before  Parliament  as  soon  as  may  be     A.D.  1918. 
after  they  are  made. 

29.  —  (1)  Notwithstanding  anything  in  the  Education   Provisions 

Act,  1902,  the  appointment  of  all  teachers  of  secular  sub-   Wlth  rei*Pect 
ii  iv  •     i  *°  appomt- 

jects  not  attached  to  the  staff  of  any  particular  public    ment  of  cer- 

elementary  school  and  teachers  appointed  for  the  purpose   tain  classes 

of  giving  practical  instruction,  pupil  teachers,  and  student 

teachers,  shall  be  made  by  the  local  education  authority, 

and  it  is  hereby  declared  that  the  local  education  authority 

have  power  to  direct  the  managers  of  any  public  elementary 

schools  not  provided  by  them  to  make  arrangements  for 

the  admission  of  any  such  teachers  to  the  schools. 

(2)  The  provisions  of  subsection  (3)  of  section  seven  of 
the  Education  Act,  1902,  shall  apply  to  any  question  which 
arises  under  this  section  between  the  local  education  au- 
thority and  the  managers  of  a  school. 

30.  —  (1)  The  managers  of  a  public  elementary  school    Provision*  aa 
not  provided  by  the  local  education  authority,  if  they  wish 

to  close  the  school,  shall  give  eighteen  months'  notice  to 
the  local  education  authority  of  their  intention  to  close  the 
school,  and  a  notice  under  this  provision  shall  not  be  with- 
drawn except  with  the  consent  of  the  local  education  au- 
thority. 

(2)  If  the  managers  of  a  school  who  have  given  such  a 
notice  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  carry  on  the  school  up  to 
the  expiration  of  the  period  specified  in  the  notice,  the 
school  house  shall  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  local  educa- 
tion authority,  if  the  authority  so  desire,  for  the  whole  or 
any  part  of  the  period,  free  of  charge,  for  the  purposes  of  a 
school  provided  by  them,  but  subject  to  an  obligation  on  the 
part  of  the  authority  to  keep  the  school  house  in  repair 
and  to  pay  any  outgoings  in  respect  thereof,  and  to  allow 
the  use  of  the  school  house  and  the  school  furniture  by  the 
persons  who  were  the  managers  of  the  school  to  the  lik« 
extent  and  subject  to  the  like  conditions  as  if  the  school 
had  continued  to  be  carried  on  by  those  managers. 

The  use  by  the  authority  of  the  school  house  during 
such  period  for  the  purposes  of  a  school  provided  by  them 
shall  not  be  deemed,  for  the  purposes  of  section  eight  of  the 


298      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 


A.D.  1918 


Grouping  of 
non-provided 
schools  of 
the  same  de- 
nominational 
character. 


Provisions 
relating  to 
central 
schools  and 
classes. 
3  Edw.  7. 
c.  24. 


Education  Act,  1902,  to  constitute  the  provision  of  a  new 
school. 

31.  Where  there  are  two  or  more  public  elementary 
schools  not  provided  by  the  local  education  authority  of 
the  same  denominational  character  in  the  same  locality, 
the  local  education  authority,  if  they  consider  that  it  is 
expedient  for  the  purpose  of  educational  efficiency  and 
economy,  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, give  directions  for  the  distribution  of  the  children 
in  those  schools  according  to  age,  sex,  or  attainments,  and 
otherwise  with  respect  to  the  organisation  of  the  schools; 
and  for  the  grouping  of  the  schools  under  one  body  of  man- 
agers constituted  in  the  manner  provided  by  subsection 
(2)  of  section  twelve  of  the  Education  Act,  1902 : 

Provided  that,  if  the  constitution  of  the  body  of  mana- 
gers falls  to  be  determined  by  the  Board  of  Education 
under  that  section,  the  Board  shall  observe  the  principles 
and  proportions  prescribed  by  sections  six  and  eleven  of 
that  Act;  and  that,  if  the  managers  of  a  school  affected 
by  any  directions  given  under  this  section  request  a  public 
inquiry,  the  Board  shall  hold  a  public  inquiry  before  ap- 
proving those  directions. 

32.  —  (1)  Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  section  six 
of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  or,  in  the  case  of  London,  sub- 
section (1)  of  section  two  of  the  Education  (London)  Act 
1903,  as  to  the  appointment  of  managers,  any  public  ele- 
mentary school  which  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board  is  or- 
ganised for  the  sole  purpose  of  giving  advanced  instruction 
to  older  children  may  be  managed  in  such  manner  as  may 
be  approved  by  the  local  education  authority,  and,  in  the 
case  of  a  school  not  provided  by  that  authority,  also  by  the 
managers  of  the  school. 

(2)  Notwithstanding  anything  contained  in  sections  six 
and  eight  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  or  in  section  two 
of  the  Education  (London)  Act,  1903,  the  provision  of 
premises  for  classes  in  practical  or  advanced  instruction  for 
children  attending  from  more  than  one  public  elementary 
school  shall  not  be  deemed  to  be  the  provision  of  a  new 
public  elementary  school,  and  any  class  conducted  in  such 
premises  may  be  managed  in  such  manner  as  may  be  ap- 
proved by  the  local  education  authority. 


ENGLISH   EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      299 

33.  Except  as  expressly  provided  by  this  Act,  nothing  in     A.D.  1918. 
this  Act  shall  affect  the  provisions  of  the  Education  Acts 

relating  to  public  elementary  schools  not  provided  by  the 

local  education  authority  or  the  provisions  of  Part  II.  of    tory  provi- 

the  Education  Act,  1902.  sionB- 

34.  —  (1)  A  local  education  authority  may  be  authorised  Acquisition 
to  purchase  land  compulsorily  for  the  purpose  of  any  of  their  j^^^Jj^. 
powers  or  duties  under  the  Education  Acts,  by  means  of  an  tion  author- 
order  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Education  and  confirmed  to- 
by the  Board  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  contained 

in  paragraphs  (1)  to  (13)  of  the  First  Schedule  to  the  Hous-   9  Edw.  7. 

ing,  Town  Planning,  &c.  Act,  1909,  and  those  provisions    c>  **• 

shall  have  effect  for  the  purpose,  with  the  substitution  of 

the  Board  of  Education  for  the  Local  Government  Board, 

of  the  local  education  authority  for  the  local  authority,  and 

of  references  to  the  Education  Acts  for  references  to  "this 

Act" : 

Provided  that  — 

(a)  the  Board  of  Education  shall  not  confirm  any  such 
order  even  when  unopposed  if  they  are  of  opinion 
that  the  land  is  unsuited  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  is  proposed  to  be  acquired ; 
(6)  an  order  for  the  compulsory  purchase  of  land  in  the 
administrative  county  of  London  shall  be  subject 
to  the  orovisions  of  subsection  (2)  of  section 
two  of  the  Education  (London)  Act,  1903; 
(c)   an  order  for  the  compulsory  purchase  of  land 
which   by   section   forty-five   of  the   Housing, 
Town  Planning,  &c.,  Act,  1909,  is  exempt  from    53  &  64  Viet, 
compulsory  acquisition  for  the  purposes  of  Part   c-  70- 
III.  of  the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act, 
1890,  shall  be  provisional  only  and  shall  not 
have  effect  unless  and  until  it  is  confirmed  by 
Parliament. 

(2)  The  powers  given  by  this  section  in  relation  to  the 
compulsory  purchase  of  land  by  the  local  education  author- 
ity shall  be  in  substitution  for  any  other  powers  existing 
for  that  purpose,  but  without  prejudice  to  any  powers  con- 
ferred by  any  Provisional  Order  confirmed  by  Parliament 
before  the  appointed  day. 


300      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Power  to 
provide  ele- 
mentary 
schools  out- 
side area. 


Amendments 
with  respect 
to  the  allo- 
cation of 
expenses  to 
particular 
areas. 


Provisions  as 
to  expenses 
of  Pro- 
visional 
Orders,  &c. 


Expenses  of 

education 

meetings, 

conferences, 

&o. 


35.  A  local  education  authority  may,  with  the  consent  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  who  shall  consult  the  authority 
of  the  area  in  which  the  proposed  site  is  situated,  provide 
a  public  elementary  school,  in  cases  where  it  appears  con- 
venient to  do  so,  on  a  site  outside  their  area  for  the  use  of 
children  within  their  area,  and  for  the  purposes  of  the  Edu- 
cation Acts  a  school  so  provided  shall  be  deemed  to  be  situ- 
ated within  the  area  of  the  authority. 

36.  —  (1)  It  shall  not  be  obligatory  on  a  county  council 
to  charge  on  or  raise  within  particular  areas  any  portion  of 
such  expenses  as  are  mentioned  in  paragraph  (c)  or  para- 
graph (d)  of  subsection  (1)  of  section  eighteen  of  the  Edu- 
cation Act,  1902,  and  accordingly  each  of  those  paragraphs 
shall  have  effect  as  if  for  the  word  "shall"  there  was  sub- 
stituted the  word  "  may  "  and  as  if  the  words  "  less  than  one 
half  or"  were  omitted  therefrom;    and,  where  before  the 
passing  of  this  Act  any  portion  of  such  expenses  has  been 
charged  on  or  allocated  to  any  area,  the  county  council 
may  cancel  or  vary  the  charge  or  allocation. 

(2)  Before  charging  any  expenses  under  section  eighteen 
(1)  (a)  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  on  any  area  situate 
within  a  borough  or  urban  district  the  council  of  which  is 
an  authority  for  the  purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education 
Act,  1902,  a  county  council  shall  consult  the  council  of  the 
borough  or  urban  district  concerned. 

37.  Any  expenses  incurred  by  a  council  in  connection 
with  any  Provisional  Order  for  the  purposes  of  the  Educa- 
tion Acts,  or  any  Order  under  this  Act  for  the  purpose  of 
the  acquisition  of  land,  shall  be  defrayed  as  expenses  of  the 
council  under  the  Education  Act,  1902,  and  the  council 
shall  have  the  same  power  of  borrowing  for  the  purpose  of 
those  expenses  as  they  have  under  section  nineteen  of  the 
Education  Act,  1902,  for  the  purpose  of  the  expenses  therein 
mentioned. 

38.  Any  council  having  powers  under  the  Education 
Acts  may,  subject  to  regulations  made  by  the  Board  of 
Education,  defray  as  part  of  their  expenses  under  those 
Acts  any  reasonable  expenses  incurred  by  them  in  paying 
subscriptions  towards  the  cost  of,  or  otherwise  in  connection 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      301 

with,  meetings  or  conferences  held  for  the  purpose  of  dis-     A.D.  1918. 

cussing  the  promotion  and  organisation  of  education  or  

educational  administration,  and  the  attendance  of  persons 
nominated  by  the  council  at  any  such  meeting  or  confer- 
ence :  Provided  that  — 

(a)  the  expenses  of  more  than  three  persons  in  connec- 
tion with  any  meeting  or  conference  shall  not  be 
paid  except  with  the  previous  sanction  of  the 
Board  of  Education ; 

(6)  payments  for  travelling  expenses  and  subsistence 
shall  be  in  accordance  with  the  scale  adopted  by 
the  council; 

(c)  expenses  shall  not  be  paid  in  respect  of  any  meeting 

or  conference  outside  the  United  Kingdom  unless 
the  Board  of  Education  have  sanctioned  the  at- 
tendance of  persons  nominated  by  the  council 
at  the  meeting  or  the  conference ; 

(d)  no  expenses  for  any  purpose  shall  be  paid  under  this 

section  without  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, unless  expenditure  for  the  purpose  has  been 
specially  authorised  or  ratified  by  resolution  of  the 
council,  after  special  notice  has  been  given  to 
members  of  the  council  of  the  proposal  to  author- 
ise or  ratify  the  expenditure,  or,  where  a  council 
has  delegated  its  powers  under  this  section  to  the 
education  committee,  by  resolution  of  that  com- 
mittee after  like  notice  has  been  given  to  the 
members  thereof. 

39.  The  powers  of  a  local  education  authority  for  the    Power  to  pay 

purposes  of  Part  III.  of  the  Education  Act,  1902,  shall    expenses  of 

prosecution 
include  a  power  to  prosecute  any  person  under  section    for  cruelty. 

twelve  of  the  Children  Act,  1908,  where  the  person  against 
whom  the  offence  was  committed  was  a  child  within  the 
meaning  of  this  Act,  and  to  pay  any  expenses  incidental 
to  the  prosecution. 

40.  —  (1)  The  Board  of  Education  may  hold  a  public  Public  in- 
inquiry  for  the  purpose  of  the  exercise  of  any  of  their  g"1^8^ 
powers  or  the  performance  of  any  of  their  duties  under  the  Education. 
Education  Acts. 


302      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 

A.D.  1918.  (2)  The  following  provisions  shall  (except  as  otherwise 
provided  by  the  Education  Acts)  apply  to  any  public  in- 
quiry held  by  the  Board  of  Education :  — 

(a)  The  Board  shall  appoint  a  person  or  persons  to  hold 
the  inquiry : 

(6)  The  person  or  persons  so  appointed  shall  hold  a 
sitting  or  sittings  in  some  convenient  place  in  the 
neighbourhood  to  which  the  subject  of  the  inquiry 
relates,  and  thereat  shall  hear,  receive,  and  ex- 
amine any  evidence  and  information  offered,  and 
hear  and  inquire  into  the  objections  or  representa- 
tions made  respecting  the  subject  matter  of  the 
inquiry,  with  power  from  time  to  time  to  adjourn 
any  sitting : 

(c)  Notice  shall  be  published  in  such  manner  as  the 

Board  direct  of  every  such  sitting,  except  an  ad- 
journed sitting,  seven  days  at  least  before  the  hold- 
ing thereof : 

(d)  The  person  or  persons  so  appointed  shall  make  a 

report  in  writing  to  the  Board  setting  forth  the 
result  of  the  inquiry  and  the  objections  and  repre- 
sentations, if  any,  made  thereat,  and  any  opinion 
or  recommendations  submitted  by  him  or  them  to 
the  Board : 

(e)  The  Board  shall  furnish  a  copy  of  the  report  to  any 

local  education  authority  concerned  with  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  the  inquiry,  and,  on  payment  of 
such  fee  as  may  be  fixed  by  the  Board,  to  any  per- 
son interested : 

(f)  The  Board  may,  where  it  appears  to  them  reason- 

able that  such  an  order  should  be  made,  order  the 
payment  of  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  costs  of 
the  inquiry  either  by  any  local  education  authority 
to  whose  administration  the  inquiry  appears  to 
the  Board  to  be  incidental,  or  by  the  applicant  for 
the  inquiry,  and  may  require  the  applicant  for 
an  inquiry  to  give  security  for  the  costs  thereof : 

(g)  Any  order  so  made  shall  certify  the  amount  to  be 

paid  by  the  local  education  authority  or  the  appli- 
cant, and  any  amount  so  certified  shall,  without 
prejudice  to  the  recovery  thereof  as  a  debt  due  to 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      303 

the  Crown,  be  recoverable  by  the  Board  sum-      A.D.  1918. 
marily  as  a  civil  debt  from  the  authority  or  the 
applicant  as  the  case  may  be. 

41.  The  minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  a  local  education    Inspection 
authority  and,  where  a  local  education  authority  delegate   °     imutes- 
to  their  education  committee  any  powers  and  the  acts  and 
proceedings  of  the  education  committee  as  respects  the 

exercise  of  those  powers  are  not  required  to  be  submitted 
to  the  council  for  their  approval,  the  minutes  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  education  committee  relating  to  the  exercise 
of  those  powers,  shall  be  open  to  the  inspection  of  any 
ratepayer  at  any  reasonable  time  during  the  ordinary 
hours  of  business  on  payment  of  a  fee  of  one  shilling,  and 
any  ratepayer  may  make  a  copy  thereof  or  take  an  extract 
therefrom. 

42.  —  (1)  For  the  yearly  sum  payable  to  the  Central    Payments  to 
Welsh  Board  under  the  scheme  regulating  the  intermediate    ^giaj^n  ra 
and  technical  education  fund  of  any  county,  as  defined  by    Board. 

the  Welsh  Intermediate  Education  Act,  1889,  there  shall 

be  substituted  — 

(a)  a  yearly  sum  equal  to  a  percentage  not  exceeding 
twenty-two  and  a  half  per  cent,  fixed  from  time  to 
time  at  a  uniform  rate  for  every  county  by  the 
Central  Welsh  Board  of  the  sum  produced  by  a 
rate  of  one  halfpenny  in  the  pound  for  the  pre- 
ceding year,  calculated  in  the  manner  provided  by 
subsection  (3)  of  section  eight  of  the  Welsh  Inter- 
mediate Education  Act,  1889 ;  and 
(6)  a  yearly  sum  equal  to  five  per  cent  of  the  net  income 
for  the  preceding  year  of  any  endowment  com- 
prised in  the  intermediate  and  technical  education 
fund  of  the  county,  or,  in  the  alternative,  for  each 
year  during  such  period  as  may  be  agreed  with  the 
Central  Welsh  Board,  such  yearly  sum  as  that 
Board  may  agree  to  accept  in  lieu  thereof. 

(2)  For  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  said  net  income 
there  shall  be  deducted  from  the  gross  income  all  proper 
expenses  and  outgoings  in  respect  of  administration  and 
management  of  the  endowment  (including  charges  for 
interest  on  and  repayment  of  loans  and  replacement  of 


304      ENGLISH  EDUCATION   ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Evidence  of 
certificates 
&c.  issued 
by  local 
education 
authorities. 


capital),  and  any  sums  required  by  the  scheme  to  be  treated 
as  capital,  and  the  term  "endowment"  shall  include  aug- 
mentations acquired  by  the  investment  of  surplus  income 
whether  derived  from  endowment  or  county  rate,  or  from 
any  other  source,  but  not  property  occupied  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  scheme. 

(3)  The  power  of  charging  capitation  fees  for  scholars 
offered  for  examination  conferred  on  the  Central  Welsh 
Board  by  the  scheme  of  the  thirteenth  day  of  May,  eighteen 
hundred  and  ninety-six,  regulating  the  Central  Welsh  In- 
termediate Education  Fund  shall  cease. 

(4)  The  provisions  of  this  section  shall  have  effect  and  be 
construed  as  part  of  the  schemes  regulating  the  Central 
Welsh  Intermediate  Education  Fund  and  the  intermediate 
and  technical  education  funds  of  counties  in  Wales  and 
Monmouthshire,  and  may  be  repealed  or  altered  by  future 
schemes  accordingly. 

43.  All  orders,  certificates,  notices,  requirements,  and 
documents  of  a  local  education  authority  under  the  Educa- 
tion Acts,  if  purporting  to  be  signed  by  the  clerk  of  the 
authority  or  of  the  education  committee,  or  by  the  director 
of,  or  secretary  for,  education,  shall  until  the  contrary  is 
proved  be  deemed  to  be  made  by  the  authority  and  to  have 
been  so  signed,  and  may  be  proved  by  the  production  of  a 
copy  thereof  purporting  to  have  been  so  signed. 


Education 
grants. 


Education  Grants. 

44.  —  (1)  The  Board  of  Education  shall,  subject  to  the 
provisions  of  this  Act,  by  regulations  provide  for  the  pay- 
ment to  local  education  authorities  out  of  moneys  provided 
by  Parliament  of  annual  substantive  grants  in  aid  of  educa- 
tion of  such  amount  and  subject  to  such  conditions  and 
limitations  as  may  be  prescribed  in  the  regulations,  and 
nothing  in  any  Act  of  Parliament  shall  prevent  the  Board 
of  Education  from  paying  grants  to  an  authority  in  respect 
of  any  expenditure  which  the  authority  may  lawfully  incur. 

(2)  Subject  to  the  regulations  made  under  the  next 
succeeding  subsection,  the  total  sums  paid  to  a  local  edu- 
cation authority  out  of  moneys  provided  by  Parliament  and 
the  local  taxation  account  in  aid  of  elementary  education 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      305 

or  education  other  than  elementary,  as  the  case  may  be,  A.D.  1918. 
shall  not  be  less  than  one  half  of  the  net  expenditure  of  the 
authority  recognised  by  the  Board  of  Education  as  expendi- 
ture in  aid  of  which  parliamentary  grants  should  be  made 
to  the  authority,  and,  if  the  total  sums  payable  out  of  those 
moneys  to  an  authority  in  any  year  fall  short  of  one  half  of 
that  expenditure,  there  shall  be  paid  by  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation to  that  authority,  out  of  moneys  provided  by  Parlia- 
ment, a  deficiency  grant  equal  to  the  amount  of  the  de- 
ficiency, provided  that  a  deficiency  grant  shall  not  be  so 
paid  as  to  make  good  to  the  authority  any  deductions  made 
from  a  substantive  grant. 

(3)  The  Board  of  Education  may  make  regulations  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  how  the  amount  of  any  de- 
ficiency grant  payable  under  this  section  shall  be  ascer- 
tained and  paid,  and  those  regulations  shall,  if  the  Treasury 
so  direct,  provide  for  the  exclusion  in  the  ascertainment  of 
that  amount  of  all  or  any  sums  paid  by  any  Government 
department  other  than  the  Board  of  Education  and  of  all 
or  any  expenditure  which  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of 
Education  is  attributable  to  a  service  in  respect  of  which 
payments  are  made  by  a  Government  department  other 
than  the  Board  of  Education. 

(4)  The  fee  grant  under  the  Elementary  Education  Act,  54  &  55  Viet. 
1891,   as  amended  by   the  Elementary  Education   (Fee  2'?6;r 
Grant)  Act,  1916,  the  aid  grant  under  section  ten  of  the  c.  35. 
Education  Act,  1902,  and  the  small  population  grant  under  39  &  40  vict- 
section  nineteen  of  the  Elementary  Education  Act,  1876,  53  &'  54  Vict. 
as  amended  by  the  Education  Code  (1890)  Act,  1890,  and  c.  22. 

the  Education  (Small  Population  Grants)  Act,  1915,  shall   %  *56  Geo'  5' 
cease  on  the  appointed  day. 

(5)  If,  by  reason  of  the  failure  of  an  authority  to  perform 
its  duties  under  the  Education  Acts  or  to  comply  with  the 
conditions  on  which  grants  are  made,  the  deficiency  grant 
is  reduced  or  a  deduction  is  made  from  any  substantive 
grant  exceeding  five  hundred  pounds  or  the  amount  which 
would  be  produced  by  a  rate  of  a  halfpenny  in  the  pound 
whichever  is  the  less,  the  Board  of  Education  shall  cause 
to  be  laid  before  Parliament  a  report  stating  the  amount 
of  and  the  reasons  for  the  reduction  or  deduction. 

x 


306      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 

A.D.  1918.  (6)  Any  regulations  made  by  the  Board  of  Education  for 
the  payment  of  grants  shall  be  laid  before  Parliament  as 
soon  as  may  be  after  they  are  made. 


Educational  Trusts. 

Power  to  46.  —  (1)  His  Majesty  may  by  Order  in  Council  consti- 

ofScial  "rus-      *u^e  an(^  incorporate  with  power  to  hold  land  without 
tees  of  edu-      licence  in  mortmain  one  or  more  official  trustees  of  educa- 

cational  trust'  tiona]  trust  property,  and  may  apply  to  the  trustee  or 
property. 

trustees  so  constituted  the  provisions  of  the  Charitable 

Trusts  Acts,  1853  to  1914,  relating  to  the  official  trustee  of 
charity  lands  and  the  official  trustees  of  charitable  funds  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  endowments  which  are  held  for  or  ought 
to  be  applied  to  educational  purposes. 

(2)  On  the  constitution  of  an  official  trustee  or  official 
trustees  of  educational  trust  property,  — 

(a)  all  land  or  estates  or  interests  in  land  then  vested  in 
the  official  trustee  of  charity  lands  which  are  held 
by  him  as  endowments  for  solely  educational  pur- 
poses, and 

(6)  all  securities  then  vested  in  the  official  trustees  of 
charitable  funds  which  those  trustees  certify  to  be 
held  by  them  as  endowments  for  solely  educational 
purposes, 

shall  by  virtue  of  this  Act  vest  in  the  official  trustee  or 
trustees  of  educational  trust  property  upon  the  trusts  and 
for  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  held  by  the  official 
trustee  of  charity  lands  and  the  official  trustees  of  charitable 
funds,  and,  on  such  a  certificate  by  the  official  trustees  of 
charitable  funds  as  aforesaid  being  sent  to  the  person  hav- 
ing charge  of  the  books  or  registers  in  which  any  such 
securities  are  inscribed  or  registered,  that  person  shall 
make  such  entries  in  the  books  or  registers  as  may  be 
necessary  to  give  effect  to  this  section. 

(3)  If  any  question  arises  as  to  whether  an  endowment 
or  any  part  of  an  endowment  is  held  for  or  ought  to  be  ap- 
plied to  solely  educational  purposes,  the  question  shall  be 
determined  by  the  Charity  Commissioners. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918      307 


A.D.  1918. 

Exemption 
of  assurance 
of  property 
for  educa- 
tional pur- 
poses from 
certain  re- 
strictions 
under  the 
Mortmain 
Acts. 

51  &  52  Viet, 
c.  42. 

54  &  55  Viet, 
c.  73. 

55  &  56  Viet, 
c.  11. 

55  &  56  Viot. 
c.  29. 


46.  —  (1)  Any  assurance,  as  defined  by  section  ten  of  the 
Mortmain  and  Charitable  Uses  Act,  1888,  of  land  or  per- 
sonal estate  to  be  laid  out  in  the  purchase  of  land  for  edu- 
cational purposes,  whether  made  before  or  after  the  passing 
of  this  Act,  shall  be  exempt  from  any  restrictions  of  the 
law  relating  to  Mortmain  and  Charitable  Uses,  and  the 
Mortmain  and  Charitable  Uses  Acts,  1888  and  1891,  and 
the  Mortmain  and  Charitable  Uses  Act  Amendment  Act, 
1892,  shall  not  apply  with  respect  to  any  such  assurance. 

(2)  Subsection  (1)  of  section  ten  of  the  Technical  and. 
Industrial  Institutions  Act,  1892,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
enrolment  in  the  books  of  the  Charity  Commissioners  of 
every  conveyance  or  assurance  of  land  for  the  purposes  of 
institutions  established  under  that  Act,  is  hereby  repealed. 

(3)  Every  assurance  of  land  or  personal  estate  to  be  laid 
out  in  the  purchase  of  land  for  educational  purposes,  in- 
cluding every  assurance  of  land  to  any  local  authority  for 
any  educational  purpose  or  purposes  for  which  such  author- 
ity is  empowered  by  any  Act  of  Parliament  to  acquire  land, 
shall  be  sent  to  the  offices  of  the  Board  of  Education  in 
London  for  the  purpose  of  being  recorded  in  the  books  of 
the  Board  as  soon  as  may  be  after  the  execution  of  the  deed 
or  other  instrument  of  assurance,  or  in  the  case  of  a  will 
after  the  death  of  the  testator. 


47.   Where,  under  any  scheme  made  before  the  passing   Appoint- 
of  this  Act  relating  to  an  educational  charity,  the  approval   ment  of  n 
of  the  Board  of  Education  is  required  to  the  exercise  by  the    under 
trustees  under  the  scheme  of  a  power  of  appointing  new    scheme, 
trustees,  the  scheme  shall,  except  in  such  cases  as  the  Board 
may  otherwise  direct,  have  effect  as  if  no  such  approval 
was  required  thereunder,  and  the  Board  may  by  order 
make  such  modifications  of  any  such  scheme  as  may  be 
necessary  to  give  effect  to  this  provision. 


General. 

48.  —  (1)  In  this  Act,  unless  the  context  otherwise  re-    Definition!, 
quires,  — 

The  expression  "  child  "  means  any  child  up  to  the  age 
when  his  parents  cease  to  be  under  an  obligation  to 


308      ENGLISH   EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 

A.D.  1918.  cause  him  to  receive  efficient  elementary  instruc- 
tion  or  to  attend  school  under  the  enactments  re- 
lating to  elementary  education  and  the  byelaws 
made  thereunder; 

The  expression  "young  person"  means  a  person  under 
eighteen  years  of  age  who  is  no  longer  a  child ; 

The  expression  "parent"  in  relation  to  a  young  per- 
son includes  guardian  and  every  person  who  is 
liable  to  maintain  or  has  the  actual  custody  of  the 
young  person ; 

The  expression  "practical  instruction"  means  in- 
struction in  cookery,  laundrywork,  housewifery, 
dairywork,  handicrafts,  and  gardening,  and  such 
other  subjects  as  the  Board  declare  to  be  subjects 
of  practical  instruction ; 

The  expression  "  school  term  "  means  the  term  as  fixed 
by  the  local  education  authority ; 

The  expression  "sea  service"  has  the  same  meaning 
as  in  the  Merchant  Shipping  Acts,  1894  to  1916, 
and  includes  sea-fishing  service ; 

Other  expressions  have  the  same  meaning  as  in  the 
Education  Acts. 

(2)  In  the  Education  Acts  the  expressions  "employ" 
and  "employment"  used  in  reference  to  a  child  or  young 
person  include  employment  in  any  labour  exercised  by  way 
of  trade  or  for  the  purposes  of  gain,  whether  the  gain  be  to 
the  child  or  young  person  or  to  any  other  person. 

Compensa-  49.    Section  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  Local  Gov- 

h^officera18*"  emment  Act,  1888>  which  relates  to  compensation  to  exist- 
51  &  52  Viet,  ing  officers  shall  apply  to  officers  serving  under  local  edu- 
c-  41-  cation  authorities  at  the  passing  of  this  Act  who,  by  virtue 

of  this  Act  or  anything  done  in  pursuance  or  in  con- 
sequence of  this  Act,  suffer  direct  pecuniary  loss  by 
abolition  of  office  or  by  diminution  or  loss  of  fees  or  salary, 
subject  as  follows  :  — 

(a)  Teachers  in  public  elementary  schools  maintained  by 
a  local  education  authority  shall  be  deemed  to  be 
officers  serving  under  that  authority ; 
(6)  References  to  a  county  council  shall  include  refer- 
ences to  a  borough  or  urban  district  council ; 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      309 


A.D.  1918. 


(c)  The  reference  to  "the  passing  of  this  Act"  shall  be 

construed  as  a  reference  to  the  date  when  the  loss 
arose ; 

(d)  The  reference  to  the  Acts  and  rules  relating  to  His 

Majesty's  civil  service  shall  be  construed  as  a 
reference  to  the  Acts  and  rules  which  were  in 
operation  at  the  date  of  the  passing  of  the  Local 
Government  Act,  1888;  and 

(e)  Any  expenses  shall  be  paid  by  the  council  under 

whom  the  officer  was  serving  at  the  date  when  the 
loss  arose  out  of  the  fund  or  rate  out  of  which  the 
expenses  of  the  council  under  the  Education  Acts 
are  paid,  and,  if  any  compensation  is  payable 
otherwise  than  by  way  of  an  annual  sum,  the 
payment  of  that  compensation  shall  be  a  purpose 
for  which  a  council  may  borrow  for  the  purposes 
of  those  Acts. 

60.  The  provisions  of  the  Education  Acts  mentioned 
in  the  first  column  of  the  First  Schedule  to  this  Act  shall 
apply  with  respect  to  young  persons,  continuation  schools, 
and  the  Education  Acts  and  instruments  made  thereunder 
in  like  manner  as  they  apply  with  respect  to  children,  ele- 
mentary schools,  and  the  enactments  mentioned  in  those 
provisions  and  instruments  made  under  those  enactments, 
and  accordingly  those  provisions  shall  have  effect  as  set 
out  and  modified  in  the  second  column  of  that  schedule. 


61.    The  enactments  mentioned  in  the  Second  Schedule    Repeali 
to  this  Act  are  hereby  repealed  to  the  extent  specified  in 
the  third  column  of  that  schedule. 


Extension  of 
certain  pro- 
visions of 
the  Educa- 
tion Acts. 


62.  —  (1)  This  Act  may  be  cited  as  the  Education  Act, 
1918,  and  shall  be  read  as  one  with  the  Education  Acts, 
1870  to  1916,  and  those  Acts  and  this  Act  may  be  cited 
together  as  the  Education  Acts,  1870  to  1918,  and  are  in 
this  Act  referred  to  as  "the  Education  Acts." 

(2)  This  Act  shall  not  extend  to  Scotland  or  Ireland. 

(3)  This  Act  shall  come  into  operation  on  the  appointed 
day,  and  the  appointed  day  shall  be  such  day  as  the  Board 
of  Education  may  appoint,  and  different  days  may  be  ap- 
pointed for  different  purposes  and  for  different  provisions 


Short  title, 
construction, 
extent,  and 
commence- 
ment. 


310      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 

A.D.  1918.      of  this  Act,  for  different  areas  or  parts  of  areas,  and  for 
different  persons  or  classes  of  persons : 

Provided  that  the  appointed  day  for  the  purposes  of  sub- 
sections (1)  and  (2)  of  section  eight  shall  not  be  earlier  than 
the  termination  of  the  present  war,  and  for  the  purposes 
of  paragraph  (iii)  of  subsection  (2)  of  section  thirteen 
shall  not  be  earlier  than  three  years  after  the  passing  of 
this  Act,  and  that  for  a  period  of  seven  years  from  the  ap- 
pointed day  the  duty  of  the  council  of  a  county  (other  than 
the  London  County  Council)  shall  not  include  a  duty  to 
establish  certified  schools  for  boarding  and  lodging  physi- 
cally defective  and  epileptic  children. 


ENGLISH   EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      311 


SCHEDULES. 


FIRST  SCHEDULE. 

EXTENSION  OF  ENACTMENTS. 


Enactment  extended. 


Elementary  Educa- 
tion Act,  1870. 

s.  36 


8.81 


s.84 


Enactment  as  extended. 


Every  local  education  authority  may, 
if  they  think  fit,  appoint  an  officer 
or  officers  to  enforce  the  Educa- 
tion Acts  and  any  byelaws,  orders, 
or  other  instruments  made  there- 
under with  reference  to  the  at- 
tendance of  children  or  young  per- 
sons at  school.  .  .  . 

Certificates,  notices,  requisitions, 
orders,  precepts,  and  all  documents 
required  by  the  Education  Acts  or 
any  regulations  or  byelaws  made 
thereunder  to  be  served  or  sent 
may,  unless  otherwise  expressly 
provided,  be  served  and  sent  by 
post,  and,  till  the  contrary  is 
proved,  shall  be  deemed  to  have 
been  served  and  received  respec- 
tively at  the  time  when  the  letter 
containing  the  same  would  be  de- 
livered in  the  ordinary  course  of 
post;  and  in  proving  such  service 
or  sending  it  shall  be  sufficient  to 
prove  that  the  letter  containing  the 
certificate,  notice,  requisition,  or- 
der, precept,  or  document  was  pre- 
paid, and  properly  addressed,  and 
put  into  the  post. 

After  the  expiration  of  three  months 
from  the  date  of  any  order  or  req- 
uisition of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion under  the  Education  Acts 
such  order  or  requisition  shall  be 
presumed  to  have  been  duly  made, 
and  to  be  within  the  powers  of  the 
Education  Acts,  and  no  objection 
to  the  legality  thereof  shall  be  en- 
tertained in  any  legal  proceeding 
whatever. 


A.D.  1918. 
Section  50. 


312      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Enactment  extended. 


Elementary  Educa- 
tion Act,  1873. 

s.  24 


Elementary  Educa- 
tion Act,  1873. 


Enactment  as  extended 


With  respect  to  proceedings  before  a 
court  of  summary  jurisdiction  for 
offences  and  penalties  under  the 
Education  Acts  or  any  byelaws 
made  thereunder  the  following 
provisions  shall  have  effect :  — 
*  *  *  * 

(4)  Any  justice  may  require 
by  summons  any  parent  or  em- 
ployer of  a  child  or  young  per- 
son, required  by  the  Education 
Acts  or  by  any  byelaws,  orders, 
or  other  instruments  made  there- 
under to  attend  school,  to  pro- 
duce the  child  or  young  person 
before  a  court  of  summary  juris- 
diction, and  any  person  failing, 
without  reasonable  excuse  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  court,  to 
comply  with  such  summons  shall 
be  liable  to  a  penalty  not  ex- 
ceeding twenty  shillings. 


(5)  A    certificate    purporting 
to  be   under   the  hand   of  the 
principal  teacher  of  a  public  ele- 
mentary or  continuation  school, 
stating  that  a  child  or  young 
person  is  or  is  not  attending  such 
school,  or  stating  the  particulars 
of  the  attendance  of  a  child  or 
young   person   at    such    school, 
shall  be  evidence  of  the  facts 
stated  in  such  certificate. 

(6)  Where  a  child  or  young 
person  is  apparently  of  the  age 
alleged  for  the  purposes  of  the 
proceedings,  it  shall  lie  on  the 
defendant    to    prove    that    the 
child  or  young  person  is  not  of 
such  age. 

*  *  *  * 

(8)  Where  a  local  education 
authority  are,  by  reason  of  the 
default  of  the  managers  or  pro- 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      313 


Enactment  extended. 


A.D.  1918. 


Enactment  as  extended. 


Elementary  Educa- 
tion Act,  1876. 

a.  38 


prietor  of  an  elementary  or  con- 
tinuation school,  unable  to  ascer- 
tain whether  a  child  or  young 
person  who  is  resident  within 
the  district  of  such  local  educa- 
tion authority  and  attends  such 
school  attends  school  in  con- 
formity with  the  Education 
Acts  or  any  byelaws,  orders,  or 
other  instruments  made  there- 
under, it  shall  lie  on  the  defend- 
ant to  show  that  the  child  or 
young  person  has  attended 
school  in  conformity  with  the 
said  Acts,  byelaws,  orders,  or 
other  instruments. 


No  legal  proceedings  for  non-attend- 
ance or  irregular  attendance  at 
school  shall  be  commenced  in  a 
court  of  summary  jurisdiction  by 
any  person  appointed  to  carry  out 
the  Education  Acts  or  any  byelaws 
made  thereunder,  except  by  the 
direction  of  not  less  than  two  mem- 
bers of  the  education  committee  of 
a  local  education  authority,  or  of 
any  sub-committee  appointed  by 
that  committee  for  school  attend- 
ance purposes. 


SECOND  SCHEDULE. 


Section  51. 


ENACTMENTS  REPEALED. 


Session  and 
Chapter. 


33  &  34  Viet, 
c.  75. 


Short  Title. 


The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1870. 


Extent  of  Repeal. 


Section  seventeen. 

In  section  twenty  from 
the  beginning  of  sub- 
section (2)  to  the  end 
of  subsection  (8). 

Section  fifty-two. 

Sections  sixty-seven  to 
seventy-two. 

Section  seventy-three. 


314      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Session  and 
Chapter. 


33  &  34  Viet, 
c.  75  — 

COTlt. 


35  &  36  Viet, 
c.  27. 


36  &  37  Viet, 
c.  86. 


89  &  40  Viet, 
c.  79. 


Short  Title. 


The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1870  —  cont. 


The    Elementary 
Education  Act 
Amendment 
Act,  1872. 

The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1873. 


The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1876. 


Extent  of  Repeal. 


In  section  seventy-four 
the  words  "  (3)  Provid- 
ing for  the  remission 
"or  payment  of  the 
"whole  or  any  part  of 
"the  fees  of  any  child 
"where  the  parent  sat- 
"  isfies  the  school  board 
"  that  he  is  unable  from 
"poverty  to  pay  the 
"same";  and  the 
words  from  "Provided 
"that  any  byelaw" 
down  to  the  words 
"  specified  in  such  bye- 
"law." 

Section  ninety-four. 

Section  ninety-seven 
from  "  Provided  that 
"no  such  minute"  to 
the  end  of  the  section. 

The  whole  Act. 


Section  fifteen. 

Section  nineteen. 

Subsections  (3)  and  (7) 
of  section  twenty-four, 
and  in  subsection  (5) 
the  words  "or  stating 
'  that  a  child  has  been 
'certified  by  one  of 
'Her  Majesty's  In- 
'  specters  to  have 
'reached  a  particular 
'  standard  of  educa- 
'tion." 

Section  five. 

Section  six. 

Section  seven  from  "  Pro- 
vided that"  to  the 
words  "by  information 
"and  otherwise." 

Section  nine. 

Section  ten. 

In  section  eleven  the 
words  "who  is  under 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918     315 


Session  and 
Chapter. 


39  &  40  Viet, 
c.    79  — 
cont. 


43  &  44  Viet, 
c.  23. 

53  &  54  Viet, 
c.  22. 

54  &  55  Viet, 
c.  56. 


Short  Title. 


The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1876  —  cont. 


The    Elementary 

Education  Act, 

1880. 
The      Education 

Code        (1890) 

Act,  1890. 
The    Elementary 

Education  Act, 

1891. 


A.D.  1918. 


Extent  of  Repeal. 


"this  Act  prohibited 
"from  being  taken  into 
"full  time  employ- 
ment." 

Section  nineteen. 

In  section  twenty-four 
from  the  beginning  of 
the  section  down  to 
'the  parent  of  such 
'child  " ;  and  the  words 
'and  the  persons  by 
'whom  and  the  form 
'hi  which  certificates 
'of  the  said  proficiency 
'and  due  attendance 
'are  to  be  granted, 
'and  with  respect  to 
'other  matters  relat- 
'ing  thereto";  and 
he  words  "and  other 
'records  of  such  pro- 
'ficiency  and  attend- 
'ance." 

Section  twenty-eight. 

Section  twenty-nine. 

Section  thirty-five. 

In  section  thirty-seven 
the  words  from  "And 
"everypersonwho  shall 
"fraudulently"  down 
"  to  not  exceeding  four- 
teen days." 

Section  thirty-nine. 

Section  forty. 

Section  forty-five. 

Section  forty-six. 

Section  forty-seven. 

Section  fifty. 

The  First  Schedule. 

Section  four. 

Section  five. 

The  whole  Act. 


The  whole  Act. 


316      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918 


A.D.  1918. 


Session  and 
Chapter. 


55  &  56  Viet, 
c.  29. 


56  &  57  Viet, 
c.  51. 


60  &  61  Viet, 
c.  32 

62  &  63  Viet, 
c.  13. 


63  &  64  Viet. 
c.  53. 


1     Edw.     7. 

c.  11. 
1     Edw.     7. 

c.  22. 


2    Edw.    7. 
c.  19. 


2     Edw.     7. 
c.  42. 


Short  Title. 


The     Technical 
and   Industrial 
Institutions 
Act,  1892. 


The    Elementary 
Education 
(School    At- 
tendance) Act, 
1893. 

The  School  Board 
Conference 
Act,  1897. 

The    Elementary 
Education 
(School    At- 
tendance)   Act 
(1893)  Amend- 
ment Act,1899. 

The  Elementary 
Education  Act, 
1900. 


The     Education 

Act,  1901. 
The  Factory  and 

Workshop  Act, 

1901. 


The     Education 
Act  (1901) 
(Renewal)  Act, 
1902. 

The     Education 
Act,  1902. 


Extent  of  Repeal. 


In  section  ten  the  words 
'but  every  such  con- 
'  veyance  or  assurance 
'shall  be  enrolled  as 
'  soon  as  may  be  in  the 
'  books  of  the  Charity 
'  Commissioners." 

The  whole  Act. 


The  whole  Act. 
The  whole  Act. 


Section  one. 

In  section  six  the 
words  "and  in  section 
four  of  the  Elemen- 
tary Education  Act, 
1880." 

Section  seven. 

The  whole  Act. 

Sections  sixty-eight  to 
seventy-two  except  as 
respects  children  law- 
fully employed  in  fac- 
tories and  workshops 
at  the  commencement 
of  this  Act  and  except 
as  respects  Scotland 
and  Ireland. 

The  whole  Act. 


In  subsection  (1)  of  sec- 
tion two  from  "Pro- 
"  vided  that  the 
"amount"  to  the  end 
of  the  subsection. 


ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF   1918      317 


Session  and 
Chapter. 


2  Edw.  7. 
c.  42  — 
cont. 


3     Edw.     7. 
c.  10. 


3     Edw.     7. 
c.  24. 

7     Edw.    7. 
c.  43. 


Short  Title. 


The  Education  Act, 
1902  —  cont. 


The      Education 
(Provision    of 
Working  Bal- 
ances)      Act, 
1903. 

The  Education 
(London)  Act, 
1903. 

The      Education 
(Administra- 
tive      Provi- 
sions)       Act, 
1907. 


A.D.  1918. 


Extent  of  Repeal. 


Subsection  (5)  of  sec- 
tion seven  from  "and 
"in  any  case"  to 
the  end  of  the  sub- 
section. 

Section  ten. 

Section  fourteen. 

Subsection  (7)  of  section 
seventeen. 

Subsection  (1)  of  section 
twenty-one. 

In  subsection  (2)  thereof 
the  words  "or  provi- 
"sional  order,"  in  sub- 
section (3)  thereof  the 
words  "or  any  provi- 
sional order  made  for 
"  the  purposes  of  such  a 
"scheme." 

Subsections  (5)  and  (10) 
of  section  twenty- 
three. 

In  the  Third  Schedule, 
paragraph  (1),  from 
' '  except  as  respects ' ' 
to  the  end  of  the  para- 
graph, and  paragraph 
(5). 

The  whole  Act. 


In  the  First  Schedule, 
paragraphs  (2)  and  (7). 

Section  four,  without 
prejudice  to  the  legal- 
ity of  anything  retro- 
spectively legalised 
thereby. 

In  subsection  (1)  of  sec- 
tion fourteen  the  words 
"or  a  ground  of  exemp- 
"  tion  for  the  purposes 
"  of  section  nine  of  the 
"  latter  Act." 


318      ENGLISH  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1918 

A.D.  1918. 


Session  and 
Chapter. 

Short  Title. 

Extent  of  Repeal. 

9    Edw.    7. 

The     Education 

Section    three,    without 

c.  29. 

(Administra- 

prejudice to  the  legal- 

tive    Provi- 

ity of  anything  retro- 

sions)     Act, 

spectively        legalised 

1909. 

thereby. 

5&6Geo.  5. 

The      Education 

The  whole  Act. 

c.  95. 

(Small  Popula- 

tion    Grants) 

Act,  1915. 

6  &  7  Geo.  5. 

The    Elementary 

The  whole  Act. 

c.35. 

Education 

(Fee     Grant) 

Act,  1916. 

65TH  CONGRESS,       TJ      TD 
3D  SESSION.  rl.     JX. 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 
JANUARY  30,  1919. 

Mr.  TOWNER  introduced  the  following  bill;  which  was  referred  to  the 
Committee  on  Education  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 


A  BILL 

To  create  a  Department  of  Education,  to  authorize  appropriations  for 
the  conduct  of  said  department,  to  authorize  the  appropriation  of 
money  to  encourage  the  States  in  the  promotion  and  support  of 
education,  and  for  other  purposes. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
Stales  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  is  hereby  created 
an  executive  department  in  the  Government,  to  be  called  the  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  with  a  Secretary  of  Education,  who  is  to  be  the  head 
thereof,  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Senate,  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  $12,000  per  annum, 
and  whose  tenure  of  office  shall  be  like  that  of  the  heads  of  other  execu- 
tive departments ;  and  section  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  of  the  Revised 
Statutes  is  hereby  amended  to  include  such  department,  and  the  provi- 
sions of  title  four  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  including  all  amendments 
thereto,  are  hereby  made  applicable  to  said  department.  The  said  Secre- 
tary shall  cause  a  seal  of  office  to  be  made  for  such  department  of  such  de- 
vice as  the  President  shall  approve,  and  judicial  notice  shall  be  taken  of 
the  said  seal. 

SEC.  2.  That  there  shall  be  in  said  department  an  Assistant  Secre- 
tary of  Education  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  who  shall  receive 
a  salary  of  $5,000  per  year.  He  shall  perform  such  duties  as  shall  be 
prescribed  by  the  Secretary  or  required  by  law.  There  shall  also  be 
one  chief  clerk  and  a  disbursing  clerk  and  such  chiefs  of  bureaus  and 
clerical  assistants  as  may  from  time  to  time  be  authorized  by  Congress. 
The  Auditor  for  the  State  and  Other  Departments  shall  receive  and 
examine  all  accounts  of  salaries  and  incidental  expenses  of  the  office 
of  the  Secretary  of  Education  and  of  all  bureaus  and  offices  under  his 
direction  and  certify  the  balances  arising  thereon  to  the  Division  of 

319 


320  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL 

Bookkeeping  and  Warrants  and  send  forthwith  a  copy  of  each  certificate 
to  the  Secretary  of  Education. 

SEC.  3.  That  there  be  transferred  to  the  Department  of  Education 
the  Bureau  of  Education  and  such  educational  war-emergency  commis- 
sions or  boards  or  educational  activities  already  established  by  Act  of 
Congress  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  President  should  be  transferred  to  the 
Department  of  Education. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  empowered  in  his  dis- 
cretion to  transfer  to  the  Department  of  Education  such  offices,  bureaus, 
divisions,  boards,  or  branches  of  the  Government  connected  with  or 
attached  to  any  of  the  executive  departments,  or  organized  independ- 
ently of  any  department,  devoted  to  educational  matters  which  concern 
the  United  States  as  a  whole  or  the  educational  system  of  any  State  or 
States  of  the  Union,  which  in  his  judgment  should  be  controlled  by,  or  the 
functions  of  which  should  be  exercised  by,  the  Department  of  Education. 

SEC.  4.  That  the  office  records  and  papers  now  on  file  in  and  per- 
taining exclusively  to  the  business  of  any  bureau,  office,  division,  board, 
or  branch  of  the  public  service  transferred  by  this  Act  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  together  with  the  furniture  now  in  use  in  such  bureau, 
office,  division,  board,  or  branch  of  the  public  service,  shall  be,  and  are 
hereby,  transferred  to  the  Department  of  Education. 

SEC.  5.  That  the  Secretary  of  Education  shall  have  charge,  in  the 
buildings  or  premises  occupied  by  or  assigned  to  the  Department  of 
Education,  of  the  library,  furniture,  fixtures,  records,  and  other  property 
pertaining  to  it,  or  hereafter  acquired  for  use  in  its  business ;  he  shall 
be  allowed  to  expend  for  periodicals  and  the  purposes  of  the  library  and 
for  rental  of  appropriate  quarters  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Education  within  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  for  all  other 
incidental  expenses,  such  sums  as  Congress  may  provide  from  time  to 
time :  Provided,  however.  That  where  any  office,  bureau,  division,  board, 
or  branch  of  the  public  service  transferred  to  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion by  this  Act,  or  by  the  President,  as  provided  in  this  Act,  is  occupy- 
ing rented  buildings  or  premises,  it  may  still  continue  to  do  so  until 
other  suitable  quarters  are  provided  for  its  use :  Provided  further,  That 
all  officers,  clerks,  and  employees  now  employed  in  or  by  any  bureau, 
office,  division,  board,  or  branch  of  public  service  by  this  Act  transferred 
to  the  Department  of  Education  are  each  and  all  hereby  transferred 
to  the  said  Department  of  Education  at  their  present  grades  and  salaries, 
except  where  otherwise  provided  in  this  Act :  And  provided  further, 
That  all  laws  prescribing  the  work  and  defining  the  duties  of  the  several 
bureaus,  offices,  divisions,  boards,  or  branches  of  public  service  by  this 
Act  transferred  to  and  made  part  of  the  Department  of  Education  shall. 


AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL  321 

so  far  as  the  same  are  not  in  conflict  with  the  provisions  of  this  Act, 
remain  in  full  force  and  effect,  to  be  executed  under  the  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  Education,  to  whom  is  hereby  granted  definite  authority 
to  readjust  the  work  of  any  of  the  said  bureaus,  offices,  boards,  or 
branches  of  public  service  so  transferred  in  such  way  as  in  his  judgment 
will  best  accomplish  the  purposes  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  6.  That  all  duties  performed,  and  all  power  and  authority  now 
possessed  or  exercised  by  the  head  of  any  executive  department  in 
and  over  any  bureau,  office,  officer,  board,  division,  or  branch  of  public 
service  transferred  by  this  Act  to  the  Department  of  Education,  or  any 
business  .arising  therefrom  or  pertaining  thereto,  or  in  relation  to  the 
duties  performed  by  it  and  authority  conferred  by  law  upon  such  bureau, 
office,  officer,  board,  division,  or  branch  of  public  service,  whether  of 
an  appellate  or  revisory  character  or  otherwise,  shall  hereafter  be  vested 
in  and  exercised  by  the  Secretary  of  Education. 

SEC.  7.  That  the  Secretary  of  Education  shall  annually  at  the  close 
of  each  fiscal  year  make  a  report  in  writing  to  Congress,  giving  an  ac- 
count of  all  moneys  received  and  disbursed  by  him  and  his  department, 
and  describing  the  work  done  by  the  department.  He  shall  also  make 
other  reports  as  hereinafter  provided.  He  shall  also,  from  time  to  time, 
make  such  special  investigations  and  reports  as  he  may  be  required  to 
do  by  the  President,  or  by  Congress,  or  as  he  himself  may  deem  neces- 
sary. 

SEC.  8.  That  it  shall  be  the  specific  duty  of  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion to  encourage  the  States  in  the  development  of  public  educational 
facilities,  including  public-health  education,  within  the  respective  States. 

In  order  that  the  encouragement  of  the  States  in  the  promotion  of 
education  may  be  carried  out  for  the  best  interests  of  education  and 
public  health  in  the  respective  States,  the  Secretary  of  Education, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  President,  is  authorized  to  reorganize 
such  bureaus,  offices,  boards,  divisions,  or  branches  of  public  service  as 
are  transferred  to  the  Department  of  Education.  In  this  reorganiza- 
tion he  shall  consider  — 

(1)  The  encouragement  of  the  study  and  investigation  of  problems 
relating  to  the  educational  purposes  set  forth  in  this  Act  and  to  such 
other  educational  problems  as  may,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Secretary  of 
Education,  require  attention  and  study.  Research  shall  be  undertaken 
directly  by  the  Department  of  Education  in  the  fields  of  (a)  illiteracy ; 
(b)  immigrant  education ;  (c)  public-school  education,  and  especially 
rural  education;  (d)  public-health  education  and  recreation;  (e)  the 
preparation  and  supply  of  competent  teachers  for  the  public  schools ; 
and  (f)  such  other  fields  as  come  within  the  provisions  of  this  Act  or  as 

T 


322 

may  come  within  the  provisions  of  other  Acts  of  Congress  relating  to 
the  Department  of  Education. 

(2)  The  encouragement  of  higher  and  professional  education  and  the 
encouragement  of  learned  societies,  including  the  appointment  of  such 
commissions  as  the  Secretary  of  Education  may  deem  necessary. 

(3)  The  encouragement  of  physical  and  health  education  and  recrea- 
tion, these  terms  to  be  inclusive  of  all  public  health  questions  relating  to 
school  children  and  to  adults,  and  of  social  and  recreational  problems 
which  relate  not  only  to  the  native  born  but  also  and  especially  to  the 
foreign-born  population. 

In  order  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this  section  the  Secretary  of 
Education  is  authorized  to  make  such  appointments  or  recommenda- 
tions of  appointments,  in  the  same  manner  as  provided  for  appointments 
in  other  departments,  of  such  educational  attaches  to  foreign  em- 
bassies, and  such  investigators  and  representatives  as  may  be  needed, 
subject,  however,  to  the  appropriations  that  have  been  made  or  may 
be  made  to  any  bureau,  office,  board,  division,  or  branch  of  public 
service  which  is  transferred  by  this  Act  or  may  be  transferred ;  and  where 
appropriations  have  not  been  made  the  appropriation  provided  for  in 
this  section  nine  of  this  Act  shall  be  available.  All  provisions  of  Con- 
gress for  encouraging  the  States  in  the  promotion  of  education,  unless 
otherwise  provided  by  law,  shall  be  administered  through  and  by  this 
department. 

SEC.  9.  That  the  sum  of  $500,000  annually  is  hereby  authorized 
to  be  available  when  appropriated  for  the  purpose  of  paying  salaries 
and  conducting  investigations  and  of  paying  all  incidental  expenses, 
including  traveling  expenses,  and  rent  where  necessary,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  allowing  the  Department  of  Education  to  inaugurate  a  system 
of  attaches  to  American  embassies  abroad  to  deal  with  educational 
matters.  But  this  section  is  not  to  be  construed  as  in  any  way  inter- 
fering with  any  appropriation  which  has  hitherto  been  made  and  which 
may  hereafter  be  made  to  any  bureau,  office,  division,  board,  or  branch 
of  public  service,  which  is  by  this  Act  transferred  to  and  made  a  part  of 
the  Department  of  Education,  or  which  may  hereunder  be  transferred 
by  the  President;  and  said  appropriations  are  hereby  continqed  in  full 
force,  to  be  administered  by  the  Secretary  of  Education  in  such  manner 
as  is  prescribed  by  law. 

SEC.  10.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  in  the  promotion  of 
education,  as  hereinafter  specified,  there  is  hereby  authorized  to  be 
appropriated,  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  ap- 
propriated, the  following  sums  :  For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  thirtieth, 
nineteen  hundred  and  twenty,  and  annually  thereafter,  $100,000,000. 


AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL  323 

SEC.  11.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  to  remove  illiteracy, 
three-fortieths  of  the  sum  authorized  by  section  ten  of  this  Act  shall  be 
used  for  the  instruction  of  illiterates  ten  years  of  age  and  over.  Such  in- 
struction shall  deal  with  the  common-school  branches  and  the  duties 
of  citizenship,  and  when  necessary  shall  prepare  for  some  definite  occu- 
pation. Said  sum  shall  be  apportioned  to  the  States  in  the  proportion 
which  their  respective  illiterate  populations  of  ten  years  of  age  and  over 
(not  including  foreign-born  illiterates)  bear  to  such  total  illiterate  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States,  not  including  outlying  possessions,  according 
to  the  last  preceding  census  of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  12.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  in  the  Americaniza- 
tion of  immigrants,  three-fortieths  of  the  sum  authorized  by  section  ten 
of  this  Act  shall  be  used  to  teach  immigrants  ten  years  of  age  and  over 
to  speak  and  read  the  English  language  and  the  duties  of  citizenship, 
and  to  develop  among  them  an  appreciation  of  and  respect  for  the  civic 
and  social  institutions  of  the  United  States.  The  said  sum  shall  be  ap- 
portioned to  the  States  in  the  proportions  which  their  respective  foreign- 
born  populations  bear  to  the  total  foreign-born  population  of  the  United 
States,  not  including  outlying  possessions,  according  to  the  last  preceding 
census  of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  13.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  to  equalize  educa- 
tional opportunities,  five-tenths  of  the  sum  authorized  by  section  ten 
of  this  Act  shall  be  used  in  public  schools  of  less  than  college  grade  for 
the  partial  payment  of  teachers'  salaries,  providing  better  instruction, 
extending  school  terms,  and  for  improving  rural  schools  and  schools 
in  sparsely  settled  localities,  and  otherwise  for  providing  equally  good 
schools  and  teachers  for  the  children  in  the  several  States.  The  said 
sum  shall  be  apportioned  to  the  States  in  the  proportions  which  the 
numbers  of  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  the  respective  States  bear 
to  the  total  number  of  public-school  teachers  in  the  United  States, 
not  including  outlying  possessions,  said  apportionment  to  be  based 
upon  figures  collected  by  the  Department  of  Education :  Provided,  how- 
ever, That  no  State  shall  share  in  the  apportionment  provided  by  this 
section  of  this  Act  unless  such  State  shall  require  every  public-school 
district  to  maintain  a  legal  school  for  at  least  twenty-four  weeks  in  each 
year,  and  unless  such  State  shall  have  enacted  and  enforced  an  adequate 
compulsory  school-attendance  law,  and  unless  such  State  shall  have 
enacted  and  enforced  laws  requiring  that  the  basic  language  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  common-school  branches  in  all  schools,  public  and  private 
and  parochial,  shall  be  the  English  language  only. 

SEC.  14.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  in  the  promotion 
of  physical  and  health  education  and  recreation  two-tenths  of  the  sum 


324  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL 

authorized  by  section  ten  of  this  Act  shall  be  used  for  physical  educa- 
tion and  recreation,  the  medical  and  dental  examination  of  children  of 
school  age,  the  determination  of  mental  and  physical  defects  in  such 
children,  the  employment  of  school  nurses,  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  school  dental  clinics,  and  the  instruction  of  the  people 
in  the  principles  of  health  and  sanitation.  The  said  sum  shall  be  ap- 
portioned to  the  States  in  the  proportions  which  their  respective  entire 
populations  bear  to  the  total  population  of  the  United  States,  not  in- 
cluding'outlying  possessions,  according  to  the  last  preceding  census  of 
the  United  States. 

SEC.  15.  That  in  order  to  encourage  the  States  in  preparing  teachers 
for  the  schools,  particularly  rural  schools,  three-twentieths  of  the  sum 
authorized  by  section  ten  of  this  Act  shall  be  used  to  prepare  teachers, 
to  encourage  a  more  nearly  universal  preparation  of  prospective  teachers, 
to  extend  the  facilities  for  the  improvement  of  teachers  already  in  service, 
to  encourage  through  the  establishment  of  scholarships  and  otherwise 
a  greater  number  of  talented  young  people  to  make  adequate  prepara- 
tion for  public-school  service,  and  otherwise  to  provide  an  increased 
number  of  trained  and  competent  teachers.  The  said  sum  shall  be  ap- 
portioned to  the  States  in  the  proportion  which  the  numbers  of  teachers 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  respective  States  bear  to  the  total  number  of 
public-school  teachers  in  the  United  States,  not  including  outlying  pos- 
sessions, said  apportionment  to  be  based  on  figures  collected  by  the 
Department  of  Education. 

SEC.  16.  That  in  the  event  the  allotments  under  sections  eleven, 
twelve,  thirteen,  fourteen,  and  fifteen  to  any  State  aggregate  less  than 
$20,000  per  annum  and  said  State  is  willing  to  meet  all  the  conditions 
of  this  Act  and  to  provide  $1  for  each  dollar  of  Federal  money,  either 
from  State  or  local  sources,  or  both,  to  the  sum  of  $20,000  per  annum, 
the  Secretary  of  Education  is  authorized  to  make  said  allotment ;  and 
in  order  to  guarantee  to  any  State  a  minimum  of  not  less  than  $20,000, 
provided  said  State  meets  the  conditions  of  this  Act  as  herein  specified, 
an  additional  sum  of  $500,000  or  as  much  thereof  as  may  be  needed, 
is  hereby  authorized  annually. 

SEC.  17.  That  in  order  to  secure  the  benefits  of  the  authorization 
made  in  section  ten  of  this  Act  and  of  all  or  any  of  apportionments 
made  in  sections  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen,  fourteen,  fifteen,  and  sixteen 
of  this  Act  any  State  shall,  through  the  legislative  authority  thereof, 
accept  the  provisions  of  this  Act  and  designate  its  chief  State  educa- 
tional authority,  and  give  to  the  same  all  necessary  power  to  act  as 
herein  provided  in  connection  with  the  Department  of  Education  in 
the  administration  of  this  Act  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  aiding  of  the 


AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL  325 

States  in  the  promotion  of  education.  In  any  State  in  which  the  legis- 
lature does  not  meet  in  nineteen  hundred  and  nineteen,  if  the  governor 
of  that  State,  so  far  as  he  is  authorized  to  do  so,  shall  accept  the  provi- 
sions of  this  Act  and  designate  the  State's  chief  educational  authority  to 
act  in  connection  with  the  Department  of  Education,  the  said  Depart- 
ment of  Education  shall  recognize  such  designation  by  the  governor 
for  the  purposes  of  this  Act  until  the  legislature  of  such  State  meets 
in  due  course  and  has  been  in  session  sixty  days.  Any  State  may  accept 
the  provisions  of  any  one  or  more  of  the  respective  apportionments 
herein  authorized  and  may  defer  the  acceptance  of  any  one  or  more  of 
said  apportionments.  In  the  acceptance  of  the  provisions  of  this  Act 
the  legislature  shall  designate  and  appoint  as  custodian  for  all  funds  re- 
ceived as  apportionments  under  the  provisions  of  this  Act  its  State 
treasurer,  who  shall  receive  and  provide  for  the  proper  custody  and 
disbursement  of  all  money  paid  to  the  State  from  such  apportionments, 
said  disbursements  to  be  made  from  warrants  duly  drawn  by  the  State's 
chief  educational  authority  which  has  been  duly  designated  to  act  in 
connection  with  the  Department  of  Education  as  provided  in  this  sec- 
tion of  this  Act. 

SEC.  18.  That  the  Secretary  of  Education  is  authorized  to  pre- 
scribe a  plan  of  keeping  accounts  of  educational  expenditures  for  use 
in  the  several  States  in  so  far  as  such  expenditures  relate  to  the  provi- 
sions of  this  Act.  The  Secretary  may  prescribe  or  approve  the  forms  to 
be  used  in  keeping  such  school  accounts  and  the  making  of  such  school 
records  as  in  his  judgment  are  required  to  insure  the  proper  administra- 
tion of  the  provisions  of  this  Act.  He  shall  appoint  an  auditor  to  have 
charge  of  such  accounting  in  the  several  States  and  of  the  examination 
of  such  accounts,  and  he  shall  appoint  such  assistant  auditors  as  may 
be  necessary  to  aid  in  examining  and  verifying  said  accounts  showing 
expenditure  of  moneys  by  the  States  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the 
provisions  of  this  Act  and  of  examining  such  other  educational  records 
as  may  be  required. 

SEC.  19.  That  in  order  to  secure  the  benefits  of  the  authorizations  in 
sections  ten  and  sixteen  of  this  Act  and  of  all  or  any  of  the  apportionments 
made  in  sections  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen,  fourteen,  and  fifteen  of  this 
Act  the  State's  chief  educational  authority  which  has  been  duly  desig- 
nated to  act  in  connection  with  the  Department  of  Education,  as  pro- 
vided in  section  seventeen  of  this  Act,  shall  present  to  the  Secretary  of 
Education  plans  and  regulations  for  carrying  out  the  provisions  of  this 
Act  in  said  State,  which  plans  shall  specifically  show  courses  of  study  and 
the  standards  of  teacher  preparation  to  be  maintained.  If  said  plans 
show  that  the  State  has  in  good  faith  made  provisions  for  carrying  out 


326  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL 

the  purposes  and  complying  with  the  conditions  of  this  Act,  in  so  far 
as  they  relate  to  aiding  such  State  in  the  promotion  of  education,  the 
Secretary  of  Education  shall  apportion  to  the  said  State  such  fund  or 
funds  as  said  State  may  be  entitled  to  under  this  Act :  Provided,  however, 
That  no  money  appropriated  shall  be  paid  from  any  fund  in  any  year  to 
any  State,  unless  a  sum  equally  as  large  has  been  provided  by  said  State, 
or  by  local  authorities,  or  by  both,  for  the  removal  of  illiteracy,  for  the 
Americanization  of  immigrants,  for  the  equalization  of  educational 
opportunites,  for  physical  education,  for  teacher  preparation,  or  such 
other  purpose  as  the  case  may  be,  and  said  sum  appropriated  by  the 
State  shall  not  be  less  for  the  equalization  of  educational  opportunities, 
the  promotion  of  physical  and  health  education,  and  the  preparation  of 
teachers,  than  that  appropriated  for  the  same  purpose  for  the  fiscal 
year  next  preceding  the  adoption  of  this  Act :  And  provided  further, 
That  no  such  sum  shall  be  used  by  any  State,  county,  district,  or  local 
authority,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  the  purchase,  rental,  erection,  pre- 
servation, or  repair  of  any  building  or  equipment,  or  for  the  purchase 
or  rental  of  land,  or  for  the  support  of  any  religious  or  privately  en- 
dowed, owned,  or  conducted  school  or  college,  but  only  for  schools 
entirely  owned  and  controlled  and  conducted  by  the  State  or  county 
or  local  authority,  as  may  be  provided  for  under  the  laws  of  said  State. 

SBC.  20.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  hereby  authorized 
to  pay  quarterly,  on  the  first  day  of  July,  October,  January,  and  April, 
to  the  treasurer  of  any  State  entitled  to  any  apportionment,  such  ap- 
portionment as  is  properly  certified  to  him  by  the  Secretary  of  Educa- 
tion. Wherever  any  part  of  the  fund  apportioned  annually  to  any 
State  for  any  of  the  purposes  named  in  sections  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen, 
fourteen,  and  fifteen  of  this  Act  has  not  been  expended  for  said  purpose, 
a  sum  equal  to  such  unexpended  part  shall  be  deducted  from  the  next 
succeeding  annual  apportionment  made  to  said  State  for  said  purpose. 
The  Secretary  of  Education  may  withhold  the  apportionment  of  moneys 
to  any  State  whenever  it  shall  be  determined  that  such  moneys  are  not 
being  expended  for  the  purposes  and  under  the  conditions  of  this  Act. 
If  any  portion  of  the  moneys  received  by  the  treasurer  of  a  State  under 
this  Act  for  any  of  the  purposes  herein  provided  shall,  by  action  or 
contingency,  be  diminished  or  lost,  it  shall  be  replaced  by  such  State, 
and  until  so  replaced  no  subsequent  apportionment  for  such  purpose 
shall  be  paid  to  such  State. 

SEC.  21.  That  every  State  accepting  the  provisions  of  this  Act 
shall,  not  later  than  September  first  of  each  year,  make  a  report  to  the 
Secretary  of  Education,  showing  in  such  detail  as  he  may  prescribe  the 
work  done  in  said  State  in  carrying  out  the  purposes  and  provisions  of 


AMERICAN  EDUCATION  BILL  327 

this  Act,  and  the  receipt  and  expenditure  of  moneys  paid  to  said  State 
under  the  conditions  of  this  Act.  If  any  State  fails  to  make  said  report 
within  the  time  prescribed  the  Secretary  of  Education  may,  in  his  dis- 
cretion, discontinue  immediately  the  payment  of  any  moneys  which 
have  been  apportioned  under  the  terms  of  this  Act  to  said  State.  The 
Secretary  of  Education,  not  later  than  December  first  of  each  year,  shall 
make  a  report  to  Congress  on  the  administration  of  sections  ten,  eleven, 
twelve,  thirteen,  fourteen,  fifteen,  sixteen,  seventeen,  eighteen,  nineteen, 
and  twenty  of  this  Act,  and  shall  include  in  said  report  a  summary  of  the 
reports  made  to  him  by  the  several  States.  The  Secretary  of  Educa- 
tion shall,  at  the  same  time,  make  such  recommendations  to  define 
further  the  purposes  and  plans  for  Federal  encouragement  of  the  States 
in  education  as  will,  in  his  judgment,  improve  the  administration  of 
the  moneys  appropriated  under  sections  ten,  eleven,  twelve,  thirteen, 
fourteen,  fifteen,  and  sixteen  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  22.  That  this  Act  shall  take  effect  March  fourth,  nineteen 
hundred  and  nineteen,  and  all  Acts  and  parts  of  Acts  inconsistent  with 
this  Act  are  here  repealed. 

H.  R.  15400  —  3 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  NEW 
PRUSSIA 


Before  the  German  Revolution  was  a  month  old  the  reform  of  ^he 
whole  system  of  education  became  a  burning  question.  The  Socialist 
Heir  Hanisch  became  Prussian  Kultur-Minister,  thus  assuming  re- 
sponsibility for  education,  the  relations  between  State  and  Church, 
and  Kultur  generally.  The  whole  political  development  of  Germany 
is  largely  dependent  upon  the  solution  of  problems  affecting  religion ; 
the  struggle  between  Socialism  and  Lutheranism  will  be  considerable 
and  the  struggle  between  Socialism  and  Roman  Catholicism,  which  in 
Germany  is  an  immensely  powerful  political  organization,  may  in  the 
end  be  decisive. 

Herr  Hanisch  set  to  work  immediately  to  organize  the  most  sweep- 
ing changes ;  and  by  the  end  of  November  the  Socialist  Press  was  allowed 
to  publish  the  following  remarkable  list  of  the  thirty-two  points  of  his 
program :  — 

A.   GENERAL 

1.  The  separation  of  Church  and  State  has  been  settled  in  principle. 
2.  Religion  has  ceased  to  be  an  examination  subject,  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  unsectarian  moral  teaching  is  being  prepared.  3.  Supervision 
of  schools  by  the  local  clergy  and  participation  of  the  clergy  in  the 
district  inspections  are  abolished.  4.  Mixed  education  of  boys  and 
girls  has  already  been  introduced  in  some  schools.  5.  Teachers  and 
scholars  receive  powers  of  self-government.  6.  All  chauvinism  is 
banished  from  the  instruction,  and  especially  from  the  instruction  in 
history.  7.  Prussia  will  propose  the  assembly  of  a  high  school  con- 
ference for  the  whole  Empire.  8.  The  uniform  school  (Einheitsschule) 
is  secured,  and  the  abolition  of  all  class  schools  will  be  begun  imme- 
diately. 9.  The  office  of  Rector  will  be  deprived  of  its  autocratic 
character  and  built  up  upon  a  collegiate  basis.  10.  The  school  author- 
ities are  instructed  to  promote  among  teachers'  unions  and  at  official 
conferences  discussions  of  educational  and  cultural  questions  of  policy 

328 


in  the  spirit  of  the  new  age.  11.  The  Ministry  of  Education  will 
include  as  representatives  of  the  Socialist  Party  two  Ministers,  one 
Under-Secretary,  one  principal  adviser  and  two  assistant  advisers. 
12.  Touch  will  be  kept  with  champions  of  the  new  movement  through- 
out the  whole  country,  and  a  list  will  be  made  of  suitable  candidates  for 
freshening  the  body  of  officials  and  teachers.  _JUL  The  leaving  examina- 
tion from  the  secondary  schools  will  be  transformed,  and  the  number 
of  examinations  will  be  reduced.  14.  The  Prussian  Ministry  of  Educa- 
tion claims  a  share  of  the  confiscated  Royal  castles  for  the  purposes  of 
national  education  —  as  training  schools,  boarding  schools,  model 
seminaries,  museums  and  national  high  schools.  15.  Physical  culture 
has  been  deprived  of  its  military  character. 

B.    TEACHERS 

16.  No  teacher  may  in  future  be  compelled  to  give  religious  educa- 
tion. 17.  It  has  been  proposed  to  the  Ministry  of  War  that  all  teachers 
shall  be  released  immediately  from  their  military  obligations.  18.  Work 
for  the  willing !  Immediate  provision  of  employment  for  teachers  who 
return  from  the  field  by  reducing  the  size  of  classes,  filling  of  all  vacant 
posts,  and  establishment  of  special  courses.  19.  The  amnesty  will  be 
applied  to  all  teachers  who  have  received  disciplinary  punishment. 
20.  Teachers  who  have  been  punished  for  their  political  or  religious  con- 
victions are  to  be  reinstated.  21.  The  teachers  will  have  representa- 
tives in  the  Government  and  in  the  school  administration.  The  Socialist 
teacher  Menzel  has  been  appointed  principal  adviser  in  the  ministry 
of  Education.  22.  Tried  teachers  will  be  appointed  to  local  inspector- 
ships of  schools  without  special  examinations. 


C.    UNIVERSITIES 

23.  Prominent  representatives  of  scientific  Socialism  and  of  other 
tendencies  which  have  hitherto  been  systematically  excluded  are  to  be 
appointed  to  university  chairs.  24.  A  system  of  national  high  schools 
is  to  be  built  up  on  large  lines,  and  to  be  placed  in  organic  connection 
with  existing  schools  and  high  schools.  25.  The  reorganization  of  the 
technical  high  schools  will  be  effected  in  close  connection  with  the  uni- 
versities. 26.  The  social,  legal,  and  financial  position  of  the  assistant 
teachers  in  universities  (Privatdozenten)  is  to  be  raised.  27.  Freedom 
of  doctrine  in  the  universities  is  to  be  rid  of  its  last  fetters.  28.  Pro- 
fessorial chairs  and  research  institutes  for  sociology  will  be  established. 


330     EDUCATION   IN  THE  NEW  PRUSSIA 


D.    GENERAL  CULTURE 

29.  The  theaters  will  be  put  under  the  Ministry  of  Education.  The 
theater  censorship  has  been  abolished.  30.  Opportunity  for  work,  and 
relief  where  necessary,  will  be  given  to  unemployed  artists  and  writers 
on  their  return  from  the  field.  31.  The  system  of  appointments  will 
be  reformed  in  association  with  the  organizations  of  artists  of  every 
school.  32.  The  Royal  theaters  will  become  national  theaters,  and  the 
Court  orchestras  will  become  national  orchestras. 

A  few  days  after  the  issue  of  these  thirty-two  points  Herr  Hanisch 
published  a  further  communication,  which  shows  that  he  is  anxious  to 
guard  against  the  accusation  that  he  is  abolishing  religious  education 
altogether.  His  intention  seems  to  be  that  time  shall  be  set  apart  for 
religious  education ;  that  teachers  who  are  willing  to  do  so  shall  continue 
to  give  religious  education ;  and  that  the  local  clergy  shall  be  permitted 
either  to  give  religious  education  themselves  in  the  schools,  or  to  employ 
the  regular  teachers  to  give  it. 


INDEX 


Absolutism,  in  education,  246 

Acton,  quoted,  192 

yEschines,  2 

Aims,  216,  265 

Alexander,  quoted,  231  et  seq. 

American  education  bill,  236 

Americanization,  216 

Aristotle,  49;  quoted,  104;  156 

Arithmetic,  its  value,  21 ;  made  un- 
necessarily difficult,  60 ;  superior- 
ity of  the  metric  system  to  Eng- 
lish tables,  67;  259 

Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  178 

Azan,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Paul, 
quoted,  244 

Bacon,  quoted,  12;  251 

Baillet,  quoted,  108 

Benn,  Ernest  J.  P.,  quoted,  269 

Birth  rate,  what  is  desirable,  35 

Browning,  quoted,  16,  158 

Bryce,  166;   quoted,  173,  177;  181 

Child,  belongs  to  the  state,  19 ;  the 
German  theory  of  his  value,  27; 
another  view,  29  et  seq.;  the  in- 
numerable company  of  children, 
31 ;  another  way  of  imaging  their 
life,  32 ;  exposure  of,  forbidden  to 
the  merciful,  34 ;  the  most  im- 
portant years  of,  36;  "the  fine 
child  at  Westminster,"  37;  chil- 
dren the  great  problem  of  life,  58 ; 
the  child's  attitude  toward  school 
work,  60 

China,  190 


Christianity,  the  lessons  of,  204 ; 
its  program,  208 

Classics,  the  classics,  166 

Coefficient  of  correlation,  143,  145 
et  seq. 

Compulsory  education,  18 

Comte,  111 ;   quoted,  121,  142 

Concord,  191 

Coover,  125  et  seq. 

Course  of  study,  57;  reconstruc- 
tion of,  262;  teachers  must 
make,  262 

Curtius,  201 

d'Alembert,  quoted,  107 

Dearborn,  89,  125 

Democracy,  the  education  of,  210; 

239 ;   in  education,  269 
Descartes,  quoted,  107  et  seq. 
Dewey,  7;  quoted,  83;  91;  quoted, 

113,  161 
Dharmapala,  transplants  Booker  T. 

Washington's  work  to  Benares, 

47 
Discovery,  the  greatest  ever  made, 

19 
Doyle,  Arthur  Conan,  quoted,  199 

Education,  what  it  is,  4 ;  rooted  in 
unselfishness,  5 ;  its  object  to 
serve,  6;  not  the  imparting  of 
universal  knowledge,  12;  not 
the  making  over  of  mind,  15 ;  the 
problem  of,  23 ;  to  unify  peoples, 
24 ;  but  one  ideal  of,  26 ;  of  the 
child  society's  supreme  con- 
structive activity,  40 ;  England's 
331 


332 


INDEX 


attitude  toward,  42;  the  voca- 
tionalizing  of  the  dominant  note, 
42;  will  it  lessen  idealism,  43; 
the  kind  in  our  missionary  school, 
43;  must  all  be  vocational,  47; 
practical  until  1750,  49;  why 
men  oppose  practical,  50;  the 
intellectualist's  view  of,  51 ;  ef- 
fect of  aimlessness  of  general 
upon  the  student,  52 ;  "education 
is  linguistic,"  70 ;  specific,  91, 150 ; 
a  conscious  process,  95,  129; 
Plato's  definition  of,  140;  reli- 
gious education  and  the  war,  197 ; 
religious  education,  204 ;  German 
education,  209  et  seq.,  230  et  seq., 
247 ;  English  Education  Act,  213 ; 
American  education,  214,  224 ; 
reconstruction  in  American  edu- 
cation, 235,  256 ;  American  edu- 
cation bill,  236 ;  shortcomings  of, 
9,37  et  seq.;  absolutism  in,  246; 
aims  in  instruction,  261 ;  de- 
mocracy in,  269 

EflBciency,  25,  155 

Elementary  schools,  217  et  seq. 

Emerson,  46,  175 

Engel,  quoted,  27,  33,  34 

England,  England's  attitude  toward 
education,  42 

English,  translation  English,  71; 
Education  Act,  213 

Eugenists,  their  program,  33 

Exposure,  child,  forbidden  to  the 
merciful,  34 

Faculties,  there  are  none,  92,  111 
et  seq. ;  in  warring,  123 

Fichte,  1 

Finley,  213 

Fisher,  Herbert,  212 

Flexner,  170 

Foch,  Ferdinand,  quoted  on  ob- 
jectives, 249;  267 

Formal  discipline,  the  doctrine  of, 
73 ;  discipline  "  the  central  prob- 


lem of  educational  psychology, " 
76;  history  of  the  doctrine,  76 
et  seq.;  the  doctrine  challenged, 
80  et  seq.;  experimental  studies, 
81 ;  the  question  which  is  being 
investigated,  82;  what  the  ex- 
periments show,  84 ;  has  perhaps 
helped  no  one,  93;  not  proven, 
93;  the  theory  of,  99;  158 

France,  5,  213 

Freud,  36 

Future,  the  future,  270 

Germany,  209 ;  the  Germans,  216 ; 
German  Education,  209  et  seq., 
230  et  seq.,  247 

Geography,  10  et  seq.,  65;  defini- 
tions in,  69  et  seq.,  223,  260 

Goethe,  43 

Grammar,  its  origin,  61 ;  its  diffi- 
culty, 62  et  seq.;  impossible  for 
children  to  comprehend,  68 

Green,  J.  R.,  quoted,  193 

Hadley,  178 

Haldane,  quoted,  185 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  105  et  seq., 

133 

Hancock,  122 
Harvard  University,  3 
Hendrick,  quoted,  127 
Herbart,  79 

Hewlett,  Maurice,  quoted,  37 
Historian,  the  historian,  187 
History,  182;    can  it  predict,  185; 

188  et  seq. ;  the  kind  we  want,  193 
Humanism,  176 
Huxley,  111 

Ideals,  2  et  seq. ;  of  education,  there 
is  but  one,  26 

James,  80 ;   quoted,  85,  160 

Japan,  190 

Jones,  Sir  Henry,  quoted,  19 

Jouffrey,  206 

Juvenal,  quotation  from,  32 


INDEX 


333 


Keyser,  quoted,  100  etseq.;  105, 133 
Knowledge,  does  not  exist  for  its 
own  sake,  7;  the  pragmatic 
view  of,  8 ;  need  for  selection,  9 ; 
which  is,  12;  defined,  17;  not 
for  its  own  sake,  130  et  aeq.,  156, 
221 ;  the  American  theory  of,  257 

Labor,  its  problems,  269 
Language,  does  not  impart  thought, 

14 
Latin,  71 ;   translation  English,  71 ; 

its  mental  training,  72 
Lessons,   must   be   simplified,    67; 

of  Christianity,  204 
Lewis,  115;   quoted,  116;    124,  143 
Lincoln,   his  method  of  studying, 

149 
Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  166 ;   quoted, 

168 

Maine,  Sir  Henry  Sumner,  174 

Mathematics,  the  value  of,  101 ; 
Socrates'  view  of,  102;  Plato's 
reason  for  studying,  103;  the 
study  of,  122 ;  does  not  train  the 
mind  universally,  148 

McNab,  quoted,  254 

Memory,  154 

Method,  scientific,  153;  251;  of  the 
inventor,  252 

Meuman,  88 

Mexico,  20  et  seq.,  189,  260 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  21,  134 ;  quoted, 
135  et  seq. 

Modernism,  179 

Moore,  Charles  N.,  120 

Moritz,  a  reply  to,  129 

Morwitz,  121 

Mothers,  a  school  for,  39 

Motor  Transport  Corps,  254 

Munsterberg,  quoted,  154 

Music,  a  most  important  subject,  25 

National  Education  Association, 
235 


Nazianzen,  Gregory,  quoted,  180 
Nietzsche,  quoted,  199  et  seq.;   217 
Normal  School,  223  el  aeq. 
Numbering,  21 

Objective,  the  objective,  249  el  teq. ; 
working  by  the  objective,  illus- 
trations, 253  et  seq. 

Organizing,  229 

Pan-Germanism,  201 

Pascal,  quoted,  109  et  seq. 

Philosophy,  220 

Plato,  on  clinging  to  eternal  life,  30 ; 
the  influences  which  should  sur- 
round the  young,  36 ;  reason  for 
studying  mathematics,  103 ;  139, 
his  definition  of  education,  140; 
quoted,  163;  180 

Political  theories,  tested,  21 

President  of  the  United  States,  241 

Public  schools,  215 

Pyle,  quoted,  161 

Quintilian,  quoted,  38;  164 

Reading,  its  value,  20;   152,  218 

Reconstruction,  in  American  educa- 
tion, 235  et  seq. ;  256,  of  the  course 
of  study,  262 

Religion,  198;  that  of  Israel,  202 
et  seq. 

Religious  education,  197,  204,  206 
et  seq.,  210  et  seq. 

Root,  Elihu,  243 

Rousseau,  175 

Rugg,  quoted,  84,  85,  125;  143, 
144  et  seq. 

Sabatier,  quoted,  205  et  teq. 

School  year,  226,  267 

Shooting,  253 

Shorey,  166;  quoted,  167,  169;  172 

et  seq. 

Sleight,  86;    quoted,  89;  125,  127 
Socrates,  18,  48,  102 


334 


INDEX 


Spearman,  quoted,  52,  86;  127 
Spelling,    9,    65;       superiority    of 

Spanish  to  English  spelling,  67; 

222,  259 

Spencer,  quoted,  135 
State,  two  notions  of,  27  et  seq. ; 

German  theory  of,  157 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,   quoted, 

204 

Strabo,  163;  quoted,  164 
Students'    Army    Training    Corps, 

240  et  seq. 
Studies,    all    should    have    names 

ending  in  ing,  17;     as  ends  in 

themselves,  95 ;     as  means,  97 ; 

study  of  mathematics,  122 ;   why 

we  want  them,  183;    217  et  seq. ; 

no  magic  in,  220 

Teachers,   must  make   the   course 

of  study,  262 
Tests,  standard,  64 
Theories,  political,  tested,  21 
Training,  what  it  means,  245  et  seq. ; 

what  America  has  learned  about 

it,  252 

Transfer,  126,  171 
Transferists,  123 
Troeltsch,  Ernest,  quoted,  230 


United  States,  where  is  it,  3;  194 
et  seq. ;  American  education,  214 ; 
what  it  has  learned  about  train- 
ing, 252 

Vocation,  its  meaning,  53;    voca- 

tionalizing,  47 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  quoted,  259 

Wanamaker,  K.  M.,  149 

War,  the  nature  of  this  one,  27; 
184,  212 

Washburn,  Margaret  Floy,  155 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  his  con- 
tribution, 45 

Wells,  H.  G.,  199 

Whitehead,  A.  N.,  quoted,  128, 
151 

Whitman,  Walt,  270 

Words,  how  they  enslave  mankind, 
69 

Work,  gives  value  in  the  social 
equation,  develops  genuine  reli- 
gion, 54  et  seq. 

Writing,  what  it  contributes.  21 

Xenophon,  163 

Young,  quoted,  110,  134 


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